Subpoenas over attorney firings planned

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats said Wednesday they are preparing to subpoena five senior Justice Department officials as part of a widening probe into whether eight U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons.

The fallout from the investigation into why the prosecutors were dismissed continued Wednesday as Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., hired a top defense attorney to handle a related probe by the Senate Ethics Committee, which is investigating allegations that Domenici pressured a New Mexico prosecutor to bring indictments against a Democrat just before the November elections.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote today to authorize subpoenas for Justice officials, including Michael Battle, who carried out the firings, and Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Republicans are likely to exercise their right under committee rules to delay the issue for a week, several aides said. But Democrats said the subpoena push signals their intent to continue digging into the firings.

The new subpoena threat followed dramatic testimony Tuesday from six of the fired U.S. attorneys, including two who alleged that GOP lawmakers or staffers had made improper telephone calls asking about ongoing criminal investigations. A third prosecutor said a Justice Department official warned him two weeks ago that he and his colleagues should keep quiet or risk retaliation.

“Now that it’s clear that there was a concerted effort to purge an impressive crop of U.S. attorneys, the next step is to identify and question those responsible for hatching this scheme to use U.S. attorneys as pawns in a political chess game,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the Justice Department had provided Congress “with very forthcoming facts and information,” including new details in House testimony on Tuesday.

Gonzales, in an opinion piece published Wednesday in USA Today, called the firings “an overblown personnel matter.”

K. Lee Blalack II, who represented former GOP congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., in a case that ended in a bribery conviction, said Wednesday that he had signed on as Domenici’s attorney.

Blalack, a partner in O’Melveny & Myers’ Washington office, also previously advised former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., in an investigation related to stock sales.