Bush ready to fight lawmakers on U.S. attorney firings flap

Story Highlights

• President Bush stressed support for Gonzales
• He said he will not allow Rove, Miers interviews to be under oath
• Patrick Leahy: On-record interviews bring "true accountability"
• Leahy: "It is not constructive [to tell] the Senate how to do our investigation"

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Tuesday reiterated his support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the midst of the scandal over whether the firings of at least seven U.S. attorneys were politically motivated.

"I am confident he acted appropriately," Bush said from the White House. "I regret that it turned into a public spectacle."

"There is no indication [after reviewing the matter] that anyone did anything improper," the president said while vowing to fight congressional demands that top political adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers be interviewed under oath. (Watch the president defend Gonzales )

Lawmakers want to ask Rove and Miers about their roles in the firings and also about the motivation for the moves. The Justice Department has admitted that at least one attorney was removed to make way for a former aide to Rove. Seven other U.S. attorneys were fired because of performance issues, the department said.

The Bush White House has been opposed to any of its officials appearing before congressional committees, arguing that such testimony violates executive privilege. (Watch analysts debate the executive privilege issue )

Earlier Tuesday, White House counsel Fred Fielding met with members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees to discuss conditions under which Rove and Miers would be interviewed.

Fielding said the two would speak to lawmakers in private and not under oath. He indicated he was not prepared to negotiate in the matter.

Shortly before Bush addressed reporters, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy emerged from the meeting with Fielding to say he would not accept the White House's offer.

"It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome," said Leahy. "Instead of freely and fully providing relevant documents to the investigating committees, they have only selectively sent documents, after erasing large portions that they do not want to see the light of day."

"Testimony should be on the record and under oath. That's the formula for true accountability," said Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. "I hope the president will agree to be forthcoming. The straighter the path to the truth, the sooner we will finally know the facts."

Lawmakers from both parties have questioned Gonzales' handling of the firings. A story on politico.com Tuesday said the Bush administration was looking at possible candidates to replace Gonzales.

The White House denied the report, and spokesman Tony Snow said Bush was standing behind Gonzales. The president repeated that support in Tuesday's statement.

Were the firings political?

Monday evening, internal Justice Department documents were released showing seemingly conflicting views within the department over some of the firings and stiff resistance from at least a few of the prosecutors who were dismissed.

Snow called the release of the 3,000 pages of documents "unprecedented" and "fully responsive" to inquiries from Congress. (Watch how documents further muddy the waters )

Justice Department officials say the dismissals of seven of the 93 U.S. attorneys were based on performance or managerial problems, but acknowledged that another fired attorney was pushed out to make way for a protege of Rove.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers said the House and Senate committees will move forward to approve the use of subpoenas to get White House officials to testify.

That would not mean that subpoenas would be issued immediately, only that the committees would be able to use them.

In a letter released after the meeting, Fielding wrote that the documents already released by the Justice Department -- including e-mails and reports on the matter -- as well as interviews with Justice Department officials, are already giving "a virtually unprecedented window into personnel decision-making within the executive branch."

"We believe that such interviews [with Rove and Miers] should be a last resort, and should be conducted, if needed, only after Congress has heard from Department of Justice officials about the decision to request the resignations of U.S. attorneys," Fielding wrote.

Fielding said the interviews -- and not testimony under oath -- would allow "this president, and future presidents, to continue to discharge their constitutional responsibilities effectively."

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday voted 94-2 to pass a bill that cancels a provision of the Patriot Act that allowed federal prosecutors to be appointed and serve without confirmation by the Senate.

U.S. attorneys can be fired without cause, but critics of the firing of the prosecutors said the administration abused the Patriot Act in circumventing the usual confirmation procedure.

Under the bill, any prosecutor with an interim appointment would have to be confirmed by the Senate within 120 days. If that didn't happen, a federal judge would make a permanent appointment, The Associated Press reported.

The Rove connection

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty last month told U.S. senators that of the fired U.S. attorneys, only Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney in Arkansas, was not dismissed for his performance but because the administration wanted a politically connected individual for the job who had ties to Rove.

The new documents show that an aide traveling with Gonzales in South America in February at the time of the McNulty testimony messaged the Justice Department that Gonzales was upset with McNulty's testimony about Cummins.

"The attorney general is extremely upset with the stories on the U.S. attorneys this morning," Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse wrote in a February 7 e-mail, according to The Associated Press. "He also thought some of the DAG's statements were inaccurate."

Roehrkasse issued a statement Monday night acknowledging "the attorney general was upset because he believed Bud Cummins' removal involved performance considerations, and it was that aspect of [McNulty's] testimony the attorney general was questioning."

Justice Department officials Monday night said the difference stemmed from the fact that Gonzales had not been thoroughly briefed.

Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, made clear he wanted more than the documents.

"This investigation has uncovered serious charges of misleading Congress, obstructing justice and abuse of power," Conyers said. (Watch GOP Sen. Arlen Specter criticize Gonzales )

Revealing emails

The documents reveal that one of the fired U.S. attorneys, Margaret Chiara of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was clearly upset with her firing and asked that any reference to poor performance be dropped.

"Why have I been asked to resign?" she wrote.

"I respectfully request that you reconsider the rationale of poor performance as the basis for my dismissal," Chiara said. "It is in our mutual interest to retract this erroneous explanation while there is still time."

In a series of e-mails, Chiara then asked if the Justice Department could find another job for her, and McNulty inquired whether that might be possible.

Her term ended last week, and she has not been hired.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.