WASHINGTON — The former Justice Department official who orchestrated the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year plans to tell Congress today that such dismissals are appropriate when prosecutors prove ineffective from "a political perspective."
In his first public remarks on the firings, D. Kyle Sampson says the process of identifying underperforming U.S. attorneys "was not scientific nor was it extensively documented," according to testimony prepared for delivery to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
None of the prosecutors was asked to resign for "improper reasons," notes a copy of Sampson's statement obtained by The Times, but an unusually broad standard was used to decide on proper grounds for dismissing them.
"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," Sampson says, noting that a federal prosecutor who falls down on the job from a political perspective is "unsuccessful."
Sampson will be the first witness in a widening congressional investigation into the firings -- a probe that has become a test of the Democrats' ability to scrutinize Bush administration policies.
His much-anticipated testimony also is expected to go a long way toward deciding the fate of Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, whose two-year tenure has been imperiled by questions about his role in the dismissals. Gonzales is scheduled to appear before the panel April 17.
Sampson resigned as Gonzales' chief of staff March 12, the day before the release of e-mails between the Justice Department and the White House detailing a two-year effort to remove U.S. attorneys who had fallen out of favor. One of his jobs was to identify prosecutors whom the administration might want to replace.
Sampson, who will testify under oath, is expected to provide the most detailed view yet from inside the administration of the politically charged affair. Another aide to Gonzales, Monica Goodling, said this week that she would invoke her right against self-incrimination rather than appear before the panel.
"Kyle Sampson was at the center of all this," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the judiciary committee, said Wednesday. "If you want to find out what happened, Kyle Sampson's a very, very good place to start."
