UNDER OATH - Sampson Tells Congress That - Gonzales LIED (NYT)

[kpete]

April 17, 2007
Ex-Aide Says Gonzales Discussed Firings
By DAVID JOHNSTON

.............

The former top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has told Congressional investigators that Mr. Gonzales was “inaccurate,” or “at least not complete” in asserting that he had no role in the deliberations about individual United States attorneys who were later dismissed, a Democratic senator said Monday.

The statements by D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales, during an interview with investigators on Sunday, were made public as the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which Mr. Gonzales was to appear to defend his actions in the dismissals.

...........

In his interview, Mr. Sampson said under oath that Mr. Gonzales took part in discussions last fall about David C. Iglesias, who was removed as the United States attorney in New Mexico, as well as in a June 2006 meeting that addressed concerns about Carol C. Lam, the United States attorney ousted from her job in San Diego, said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Mr. Sampson made similar statements in public testimony to the Judiciary Committee on March 29, but appeared to offer more specifics in the interview.

Mr. Schumer, who has led the Senate inquiry into the Justice Department’s ouster of eight federal prosecutors, said that Mr. Sampson’s testimony raised new questions about the accuracy of Mr. Gonzales’s previous statements, most recently in testimony released Sunday in advance of the Senate hearing, that he had not taken part in deliberations about individual prosecutors designated for removal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/washington/17attorneys.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

[WiseButAngrySara]

1. He is so nailed! Why doesn't he just resign already? k(pete)nr! ....n/t

[kpete]

2. Nailed is right

I just hope he takes Rove with him

[BuyingThyme]

3. Lied? Not lied?

Same thing.

[gristy]

4. "Mr. Gonzales, did you participate in deliberations regarding planned dismissals

of US Attorneys? Yes or No"

Gonzo: "Well, Senator, blah blah blah... blah... "

Schumer: "Yes or No, Mr. Gonzales."

Gonzo: "Blah, blah, blah..."

Schumer: "Yes or No, Mr. Gonzales!"

Gonzo (to attorney): "whisper, whisper, whisper"

Gonzo: "I take the 5th, Senator."