Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 16, 2007; 12:58 PM
The White House retreated today from its claim that former counsel Harriet E. Miers first came up with the idea of firing U.S. attorneys, another apparent shift in the Bush administration's evolving version of events behind the controversy.
White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters that it was no longer clear who first initiated the idea of dismissing a large number of the 93 federal prosecutors following the 2004 elections.
"It has been described as her idea but . . . I don't want to try to vouch for origination," Snow said, referring to Miers. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."
Snow and other administration officials have said for the past four days that Miers first suggested firing all U.S. attorneys. They have cited e-mails from a Justice Department official on the topic and the recollection of presidential adviser Karl Rove.
Officials also have said that Rove and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales opposed that idea and that Justice embarked on a more limited effort that led to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.
Snow was asked whether Bush might have suggested the firings.
"Anything's possible," he said, "but I don't think so." He said Bush "certainly has no recollection of any such thing. . . . I want you to be clear here: don't be dropping it at the president's door."
Snow's remarks are the latest revision to the official chain of events surrounding the firings. The administration's account has shifted repeatedly during the past week as new e-mails and other evidence have come to light in response to congressional demands for information. A growing number of lawmakers have called for Gonzales's resignation because of his handling of the firings and their aftermath.
E-mails released late Thursday showed that the Justice Department had first advocated firing a larger number of U.S. attorneys -- up to 20 percent -- than it previously indicated. The e-mails also showed for the first time that Gonzales had discussed the idea of the firings even before he became attorney general and that Rove expressed interest in the status of the effort in January 2005.
The most serious shift in the administration's account came on Tuesday, when it released documents indicating that the White House had initiated the idea of a mass firing of U.S. attorneys and monitored the scheme's progress during the next 22 months. That was contrary to what the White House and Justice Department had said about the firings for weeks before that.
One January 2006 memo written by D. Kyle Sampson, then Gonzales's chief of staff, attributed the initial idea to Miers: "Harriet, you have asked whether President Bush should remove and replace U.S. attorneys. . . . " Snow and other officials also said Miers had first suggested the firings. Sampson resigned this week after failing to tell senior Justice officials of his extensive involvement with the White House in planning the dismissals.
But Snow was noncommittal on that point in remarks this morning, saying that "in fairness, both to the facts and also the future, I'm not going to try to characterize it."
Snow also said that "it's not even clear" whether the idea to fire all U.S. attorneys "is a recommendation as much as a musing, a possibility: Okay, we're coming into a new administration, we've just had an election -- what are some of the options? How do we think about making sure that we've got the best team available for a second term?"
Gonzales, who has rejected calls to resign, said in a news conference Tuesday that "some two years ago, I was made aware of a request from the White House as to the possibility of replacing all the United States attorneys."
"That was immediately rejected by me," he said. "I felt that that was a bad idea and it was disruptive."
The e-mails released Thursday, however, muddy the question of when Gonzales was first made aware of the idea, suggesting that Sampson spoke "briefly" with him about the idea in December 2004.
Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said Gonzales has "no recollection" of discussing the prosecutors' firings at the time, while he was still serving as White House counsel and preparing for his January 2005 confirmation hearings. Gonzales first recalls such discussions taking place the following February, after he had taken over the Justice Department, Scolinos said.
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