White House wanted to fire all prosecutors

The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 US attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors carried out last year, according to e-mails and internal documents that the administration will provide to Congress.

The dismissals took place after President George W Bush told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of US attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005, but he left it to an aide, Kyle Sampson, to carry out most of the details.

Sampson resigned on Monday, after acknowledging he did not tell other Justice officials who testified to Congress about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information in their testimony to lawmakers.

Congress has requested the documents as part of an investigation by both Judiciary committees into whether the firings were politically motivated.