Former aide contradicts Gonzales

D. Kyle Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the attorney general had participated in "at least five" meetings on the subject over the course of more than two years, and had other encounters in which the "strengths and weaknesses" of prosecutors were discussed.

"I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," Sampson said.

Sampson's testimony could be a major blow to Gonzales, who is struggling to hold on to his job in the face of growing criticism from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Sampson also disclosed how he and a small band of young lawyers at the Justice Department and the White House decided which U.S. attorneys should be replaced last year.

In one revelation that seemed to startle some senators, Sampson described how he proposed replacing the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who was at the time investigating White House political strategist Karl Rove and others to discover who exposed the identity of a covert CIA operative.

"I said, 'Pat Fitzgerald could be added to this list,' " Sampson said. He was in a meeting with then-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers and Deputy Counsel William Kelley. "They looked at me like I had said something totally inappropriate, and I had. Immediately after I did it, I regretted it."

Fitzgerald, regarded as one of the top prosecutors in the nation, subsequently won the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, for perjury in the CIA operative case.

Sampson also disclosed that one of the fired U.S. attorneys, David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, was not pegged for dismissal until October, just as two Republican members of Congress were inquiring about his handling of a public corruption investigation of state Democrats.

Sampson also complained to the FBI after a San Diego agent was quoted as saying that the U.S. attorney there, Carol C. Lam, was fired for political reasons, a complaint that led the bureau to muzzle the agent.

Sampson denied that any of the firings was done for improper reasons, but he said that politics in the broadest sense was a legitimate reason for replacing U.S. attorneys, who are appointed by the president.