WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying they are "not satisfied" with the "selective production and unilateral redaction decisions" of documents the Department of Justice has turned over to Congress related to the firing of U.S. attorneys, three top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee warned U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Friday that the committee will issue subpoenas if required to get the material.

In a letter, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California said Gonzales has "not provided any valid legal basis" for the redactions or for withholding documents altogether, and said the committee is prepared to vote next Thursday to authorize subpoenas for the documents.

Those documents include about 1,000 previously unreleased items shown privately in the last two weeks to congressional investigators working out of an office at the Justice Department, according to a Senate source.

The source said the Justice Department is restricting investigators from taking notes on or making copies of the material and said the department is resisting repeated requests from the committee to publicly release the documents.


"We are trying to get to the truth," the senators wrote the embattled attorney general. "Documents should be provided without restrictions on disclosure so that they may be used to question witnesses -- including yourself -- on any issue that is an important part of our inquiry."

The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the matter Friday but the Senate source said the committee was told the department is withholding the material for privacy reasons.

The Senate source said there apparently is no "smoking gun" in the documents.