Gonzales White House Testimony Offer:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/2...red-prosecutors
Gonzales Aide to Invoke Fifth Amendment
LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' liaison with the White House will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.
The House voted 329-78 to strip the attorney general of his power to indefinitely appoint federal prosecutors, approving a bill similar to one passed in the Senate. President Bush, who is standing by Gonzales, has signaled that he will not veto the legislation.

Meanwhile, another Republican added his criticism to the growing chorus.

"His word is tarnished," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said of Gonzales.

Goodling's statement contradicted her boss' promise to allow his top aides to testify before Congress, voluntarily and under oath.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...ush-aides_N.htm
Poll backs subpoenas of Bush aides
By Susan Page

WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly support a congressional investigation into White House involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, and they say President Bush and his aides should answer questions about it without invoking executive privilege.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday-Sunday, respondents said by nearly 3-to-1 that Congress should issue subpoenas to force White House officials to testify.

The poll finds little sympathy for the administration's claim that White House aides shouldn't have to testify to ensure that a president gets candid advice. By 68%-26%, those surveyed say the president should drop the claim of executive privilege in this case.

That's similar to the public's view in 1998 when asked if President Clinton's aides should testify about the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Interest in this controversy is much lower than it was in the Lewinsky scandal, however. Only 14% are following the U.S. attorneys story very closely; 32% are following it somewhat closely. One in five say they aren't following it at all.

 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FIR...EMPLATE=DEFAULT
Ex-Aide: Gonzales Signed Off on Firings
By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Contrary to his public statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was deeply involved in the firing of eight federal prosecutors, his former top aide said Thursday, adding that the final decision on who was to be dismissed was made by Gonzales and President Bush's former counsel.

"I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," Kyle Sampson, who quit this month as Gonzales' chief of staff, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign."

"The decision makers in this case were the attorney general and the counsel to the president," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I and others made staff recommendations but they were approved and signed off on by the principals."

The White House response was notably muted.

Sampson also testified the prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support Bush's priorities, defending a standard that Democrats called "highly improper."

Hours before Sampson's testimony, the Justice Department admitted that it gave senators inaccurate information about the firings and presidential political adviser Karl Rove's role in trying to secure a U.S. attorney's post in Arkansas for one of his former aides, Tim Griffin.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7032901366.html
Taking One for the Team, When He Could Remember
By Dana Milbank

Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was in his fourth hour testifying yesterday about the firing of federal prosecutors...

The witness fessed up to an expanding list of sins. He admitted that the Justice Department was trying to circumvent the Senate confirmation process. He confessed that he proposed firing Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak case. "I regretted it," he explained. "I knew that it was the wrong thing to do."

But the self-sacrificing witness still managed -- inadvertently, perhaps -- to implicate Gonzales and Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove. Sampson, who resigned from the Justice Department earlier this month, admitted that Gonzales "had received a complaint from Karl Rove about U.S. attorneys in three jurisdictions." Asked about the accuracy of Gonzales's claim of non-involvement, Sampson confessed: "I don't think it's entirely accurate what he said."

"I can't pretend to know or remember every fact that may be of relevance," he warned at the start -- and he wasn't kidding. He used the phrase "I don't remember" a memorable 122 times.

It may have been a tactical effort to limit his risk of perjury, but Sampson displayed the recall of a man who recently fell off a ladder.

MJ: AHHH, the Ronald Reagan/Ollie North Defense rears it's ugly head again. Naturally, if you or I tried that tactic the judge would toss us in jail to 'think it over', but in DC it's all in a day before the congress. Just what is it about DC which makes selective memory such a problem?

 

I think the problem with amnesia in DC may have to do with the anthrax which mysteriously appears when ever there is hesitation to reauthorize the Patriot Act. Me thinks some gets airborne and affects the 'selective memory chip' in our great legislators. Funny how anthrax only appears in a timely fashion and then no one ever gets caught!?!