Senator Who Said Gonzales Lied to Him Hasn't Heard Back
By Chitra Ragavan
Mon Apr 23, 9:44 PM ET


At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, one particular bone of contention that earned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a bipartisan scolding was the Justice Department's use of a provision in the U.S.A. Patriot Act allowing Gonzales to name interim U.S. attorneys to replace those fired without Senate confirmation.

That issue has greatly angered Sen. Mark Pryor (news, bio, voting record), an Arkansas Democrat in whose state Gonzales replaced the existing U.S. attorney, H. E. "Bud" Cummins, with J. Timothy Griffin, a former prot �g� of Bush political adviser Karl Rove, using this controversial provision.

Pryor has said that he called Gonzales and the White House on December 15 to weigh in on who Cummins's replacement should be. When Pryor heard that the administration was planning to name Griffin as an interim appointee, the senator says, he "asked them to please not do that, and please send someone through the confirmation process. And if it was Tim Griffin, send him through," even though Pryor could not guarantee he would vote for Griffin. Gonzales assured him that he supported the idea of a Senate-confirmed nominee as well.

But just four days later, Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, sent an E-mail to Christopher Oprisem in the White House, regarding circumventing Pryor and his fellow Arkansas senator, Blanche Lincoln (news, bio, voting record), also a Democrat.

"I think we should gum this to death," Sampson wrote. "Ask the senators to give Tim a chance, meet with him, give him some time in office to see how he performs, etc. If they ultimately say, 'no, never,' (and the longer we can forestall that, the better), then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for their recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in 'good faith,' of course."

Sampson also says the administration should "pledge" to desire a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney but "otherwise hunker down." He concludes by saying he's not "100 percent sure" that Griffin was the "guy on which to test-drive this authority, but know that getting him appointed was important to [then White House counsel] Harriet Miers, Karl [Rove], etc."
Pryor was infuriated by the memo and said last month that in their talk on December 15, Gonzales appeared to be using the same points Sampson listed in his E-mail (which was sent to the White House four days later) as a "playbook" and hit every point, assuring him that Pryor would get a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney.

"This is why I feel lied to," Pryor said in angry remarks on the Senate floor last month. "And the truth is I was lied to, because I was told that the attorney general...wanted a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney in every slot. That is absolutely not true in Arkansas, based on this E-mail from the Justice Department." Pryor said he felt particularly betrayed because he was one of six Democratic senators who had backed Gonzales for attorney general. He called on Gonzales to "resign immediately" because he didn't think Gonzales "has the credibility to run that department anymore."

Then Pryor became even more emphatic. Gonzales "not only lied to me as a person, but when he lied to me, he lied to the Senate and he lied to the people I represent," Pryor said. "And for that reason, I'm asking him and demanding that he resign today."

At Thursday's Judiciary Committee hearing, Gonzales was probed by both Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), a South Carolina Republican, about his discussion with Pryor. Gonzales said he never liked the idea of an interim appointment without Senate confirmation because it dilutes the prosecutor's authority. But Schumer said it "defies credulity" that Sampson could have unilaterally sent the memo to the White House and "after you tell somebody you're going one way goes exactly the opposite way."

Describing Pryor as "one of the most temperate" and "mild-mannered" senators, Schumer said that his colleague's words "were all the more striking" for that reason. Graham had some "personal advice" for Gonzales, saying he needed to make amends to Pryor, who had "said some pretty harsh things, which is out of character." Graham advised Gonzales to "sit down with him and walk through what happened" and asked Gonzales to clean up the mess.

"Senator, I couldn't agree more," said Gonzales. "I have a great deal of admiration for Senator Pryor, and I think that's a good idea."

But as of Friday afternoon, Gonzales had not reached out to Pryor, the senator's communications director, Michael Teague, told U.S. News. Teague said Pryor's "door is always open" and that the senator "doesn't have any reservations" about meeting with Gonzales but is not sure "what good it would do at this point."

"They not only wrote the E-mail, they implemented that E-mail," says Teague. "And Griffin still holds that position." Teague said Pryor still feels lied to and still wants Gonzales to resign.
"We don't buy this story about the attorney general saying he rejected the idea," said Teague. "In Arkansas, we got a word for that--it's 'baloney.' "


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