WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee voted Thursday to subpoena four recently replaced U.S. attorneys as part of a widening probe into whether the Bush administration was politicizing the appointment of top prosecutors around the country.
The action marked the first major use of subpoena power by the new Democratic-controlled Congress, and begins to fulfill a pledge of the Democratic leadership to scrutinize administration policies.
The prosecutors, directed to appear at a hearing Tuesday, were among at least eight who were abruptly removed in recent months by the Justice Department. Officials have said they dismissed the lawyers primarily because of concerns over their performance, as well as policy differences over whether they were pursuing department priorities such as cases of immigration fraud and child exploitation.
But the lawyers -- all appointees of President Bush -- have not gone quietly. They are publicly disputing the characterization the department has offered for their departures.
The result has been a political embarrassment for the White House and the Justice Department, and an odd spectacle of Democrats giving aid and comfort to Republican appointees.
The move by a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee came a day after the former U.S. attorney in Albuquerque said he believed he was dismissed for political reasons. David Iglesias said that two members of Congress had pressured him to bring corruption charges against a Democratic official in New Mexico before the November election but that he had resisted.
Also subpoenaed was Carol Lam, former U.S. attorney in San Diego, who oversaw the bribery case against former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of Rancho Santa Fe. Lam's office brought charges against two others in that case, including a former senior CIA official, two days before she left her job last month.
The other former prosecutors subpoenaed are John McKay of Seattle and H.E. "Bud" Cummins of Little Rock, Ark. The four prosecutors were first appointed by Bush in 2001 and 2002.
The subcommittee said all four had agreed to appear, and the Justice Department said it would send a top official to the hearing.
The vote to issue the subpoenas illustrated a partisan divide: Republicans boycotted the proceeding; the seven Democrats present unanimously endorsed the move.
