WASHINGTON—U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fended off new bipartisan calls to resign on Thursday and told skeptical U.S. lawmakers that his mass firing of federal prosecutors last year was justified.
As Gonzales completed an all-day and often combative appearance before the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee, the White House reaffirmed its support in him and echoed his claim that "nothing improper occurred."
Yet it remained unclear how long Gonzales would stay. President George W. Bush voiced support in Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary and then fired him after last November's elections dominated opposition to the Iraq war.
Shortly after Democrats took control of Congress from Bush's Republicans in January, they began an investigation into whether Gonzales' firing last year of eight of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys were politically motivated.
Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, told Gonzales, "I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."
Gonzales disagreed. "I believe that I continue to be effective as the attorney general of the United States," he said.
The attorney general testified that while the dismissal process was flawed, the decision to fire the prosecutors was justified.
Some of the toughest remarks from senators came from Gonzales' fellow Republicans, who pointedly agreed with him that he had mishandled the ousters.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told Gonzales his credibility had been undermined, but "I'm not going to call for your resignation."
"I think there are two people who have to decide that question," Specter said, citing Gonzales and Bush.
Gonzales appeared before the committee with instruction from Bush to answers questions about shifting explanations about the firings.
Loyalty to Bush
The Justice Department initially said the dismissals were performance related but later said they involved policy differences. Recently released documents show loyalty to Bush was also a factor.
Under questioning from lawmakers wanting to know why each of the prosecutors was sacked, Gonzales said concerns about them ranged from their professional judgments to commitment to pursue obscenity, death penalty and immigration cases.
"Mr. Attorney General, most of this is a stretch," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.
"It's clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or the White House and we made up reasons to fire them," Graham said.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, told Gonzales: "You have answered 'I don't know' or 'I can't recall' to close to 100 questions."
"We still don't have convincing explanations of the who, when and why with regard to the firing of the majority of the eight U.S. attorneys," Schumer said again, urging Gonzales to step down.
The plan to fire U.S. attorneys originated in the White House shortly after Bush was re-elected in November 2004. One of the ousted prosecutors was replaced by a former aide to Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser.
Gonzales appeared before the committee three weeks after his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified that the attorney general was more deeply involved in the firings than Gonzales had initially acknowledged.
Subsequently, Gonzales modified his stand. He said he did participate in discussions about the firings. He also said his role was largely limited to signing off on dismissals following a department review.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "The president was pleased with the attorney General's testimony today" and retains "full confidence" in him.
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