NYT:Ex-Aide Says Gonzales Discussed Firings

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The former top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has told Congressional investigators that Mr. Gonzales was “inaccurate,” or “at least not complete” in asserting that he had no role in the deliberations about individual United States attorneys who were later dismissed, a Democratic senator said Monday.

The statements by D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales, during an interview with investigators on Sunday, were made public as the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which Mr. Gonzales was to appear to defend his actions in the dismissals.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, its senior Republican, delayed the hearing until Thursday because of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.

In his interview, Mr. Sampson said under oath that Mr. Gonzales took part in discussions last fall about David C. Iglesias, who was removed as the United States attorney in New Mexico, as well as in a June 2006 meeting that addressed concerns about Carol C. Lam, the United States attorney ousted from her job in San Diego, said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Mr. Sampson made similar statements in public testimony to the Judiciary Committee on March 29, but appeared to offer more specifics in the interview.

Mr. Schumer, who has led the Senate inquiry into the Justice Department’s ouster of eight federal prosecutors, said that Mr. Sampson’s testimony raised new questions about the accuracy of Mr. Gonzales’s previous statements, most recently in testimony released Sunday in advance of the Senate hearing, that he had not taken part in deliberations about individual prosecutors designated for removal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/washington/17attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[DURHAM D]

1. I think part of the reason for the hearing delay is ongoing discovery.

I think the staff is probably working overtime to sort through all of the information dumped on them. They are more than likely not really ready for the hearing because info is still being processed. Also, I wonder if they were expecting some helpers/advisers to arrive in D.C. today that could not get their due to all of the flight cancellations on the east coast.

[pscot]

2. It kind of sounds like Gonzo is taking the fall

If that doesn't work I guess the pResident will have to hung out to dry. Got to protect Rove, at all costs.