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WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah defended U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Saturday after newly released documents showed Gonzales was in a meeting where he approved the firing of seven U.S. attorneys.
The revelation appeared to contradict Gonzales' earlier statements that he was not aware of the details of a plan to fire the prosecutors, and to support what Kyle Sampson, a Utah native who was Gonzales' chief of staff, has stated through his attorney: that many senior Justice Department officials were aware of the U.S. attorney discussions.
Hatch on Saturday defended Gonzales.
"In my long experience with Attorney General Gonzales, he has always been straightforward and honest with me," Hatch said. "So, unless there is clear evidence that the attorney general deliberately lied or misled Congress, I see no reason to call for his resignation."
Cannon also jumped to Gonzales' defense.
"The attorney general hasn't said he hasn't touched this. He has said he wasn't deeply involved," Cannon said on Fox News. "This is highly consistent with what the attorney general has said in the past."
Cannon said that there is "nothing wrong with firing a U.S. attorney for the reason of politics," and Democrats have been unable to prove there was any corruption involved.
An internal review of the conduct of Justice Department officials has been initiated.
"Although there is no evidence to suggest that any U.S. Attorney was removed for improper reasons, the Attorney General asked the Office of Professional Responsibility to conduct an investigation into the dismissals," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. It will be conducted in conjunction with the department's inspector general.
As Congress continues its investigation into the firings, President Bush urged members to accept his offer of cooperation - allowing senior aides such as Karl Rove to appear in one-time, closed-door interviews with no transcript or oath.
"Members of Congress now face a choice: Whether they will waste time and provoke an unnecessary confrontation, or whether they will join us in working to do the people's business," Bush said in his weekly radio address. The president has said he will fight any effort to subpoena his aides.
Meanwhile, the new Justice Department e-mails also show the willingness of Utahn Brett Tolman, an assistant U.S. Attorney working temporarily for the Senate Judiciary Committee, to help the department change language in the Patriot Act to allow interim U.S. attorneys appointed by the attorney general to serve until a replacement is confirmed. Previously the interim prosecutor could only serve 120 days, at which point a federal judge would name the acting prosecutor.
In the fallout from the firings, the Senate voted last week to strip the attorney general of the authority and the House is likely to do the same.
Tolman has since been named U.S. attorney for Utah.
The change to the law was proposed in 2003 by Daniel Collins, an associate deputy attorney general. In November 2005, Assistant Attorney General William Moschella passed the suggestion to Tolman, who was helping work out differences in the versions of the bill passed by the House and Senate.
In an e-mail titled "Dan Collins Special," Moschella presented two ways the bill could be changed, the more comprehensive allowing the U.S. attorney appointed by the attorney general to serve until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate. "I will get the comprehensive fix done," Tolman responded.
In a September 2006 e-mail, Sampson strongly endorsed using the new authority to replace the fired U.S. attorneys, since it would enable the administration to pick its candidates without having to bend to home-state senators.