April 2, 2007 issue - When dispirited Justice Department officials assembled for a senior staff meeting last Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales surprised them. "I just got off the phone with the president," he said, "and he told me he wants me to keep on fighting. And that's what we're going to do." At a news conference later that day, President George W. Bush said he supported Gonzales, defusing expectations that the embattled attorney general was about to resign. But behind the scenes, things remain tense between the White House and Justice over the U.S. attorney mess.
The crucial test will come next month, when the A.G. is slated to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats plan to hammer Gonzales for his conflicting accounts of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
This week Gonzales's former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, is due to testify before the Senate panel. Justice e-mails show Sampson ranked prosecutors according to whether they were a "loyal Bushie," and coordinated the timing of the firings with White House officials―including aides to Karl Rove. Gonzales claimed he was unaware that the White House was so deeply involved. But Dems will press Sampson to explain how his boss could have been kept in the dark. His likely answer: Gonzales was "generally aware" of the firings but was not briefed on every "twist and turn," said a source familiar with Sampson's account (who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities).