Ex-Justice official recounts high marks for fired attorneys

A former chief deputy in the Justice Department told an investigative panel Thursday that his own high evaluations of most of the fired U.S. attorneys apparently did not square with those of other top officials there, while acknowledging that the inquiry about their dismissals had undermined morale at the agency.

James Comey, who served as deputy attorney general under Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales before leaving in August 2005, denied playing any role in the dismissals or knowing why they were fired.

Comey, a veteran federal prosecutor himself before rising to the No. 2 job in the Justice Department, is now general counsel for Lockheed Martin Corp. He appeared under a subpoena before the House Judiciary Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, though he later told reporters he would have shown up anyway if simply invited to testify.

The subcommittee, headed by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., is one of the panels in the House and Senate probing whether the firings were motivated by the administration's and some lawmakers' displeasure over the prosecutors' reluctance to pursue alleged voting fraud by Democrats or their zeal in prosecuting Republican officeholders.

Comey provided glowing performance assessments of several of the sacked prosecutors and said on only one occasion had he offhandedly described one as a "weak manager" when asked by another department official about the U.S. attorney's capabilities.

Of the others, Comey said, he could find no fault nor did he understand why they had been dismissed or how their firings were handled, since the decision to do so was made after he left the department.

Comey also said he was unaware of a list being compiled by Kyle Sampson, a former chief of staff to Gonzales, apparently in collaboration with the White House, of prosecutors to be fired. He recalled a conversation with Sampson, who asked whether some prosecutors were under-performing, Comey said. But, he added: "I'm quite certain he didn't mention the White House" in connection with his question.

As for his opinion about the performance of most of the other prosecutors whose names appeared on a potential dismissal list, Comey described Carol Lam in San Diego as "a fine U.S. attorney," and John McKay of Seattle as "one of my favorites." Both Paul Charlton of Arizona and David Iglesias of New Mexico, Comey said, were first-rate. And he was most complimentary of Daniel Bogden of Nevada, whom he described as "straight as a Nevada highway and a fired-up guy who made tremendous strides against violent crime."

Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee ranking member Chris Cannon, R-Utah, decried the panel's inquiry as "a fishing expedition that's come up dry. Nothing I've seen warrants any accusations of stonewalling or corruption."

He later noted Comey's appraisals of the prosecutors' performance did not cover the last year or so of their tenures, and he read another department official's prickly report of Iglesias' failure to notify higher-ups when Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., phoned the prosecutor to inquire about his delay in not indicting some local Democrats shortly before an election. U.S. attorneys are required to report such contacts to their superiors.