House panel OKs subpoenas in probe of U.S. attorneys' firing

WASHINGTON — A congressional subcommittee Wednesday put itself on a collision course with the White House over the firing of U.S. attorneys, while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under siege for his handling of the dismissals, took steps to repair his image.

Over Republican objections, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law authorized subpoenas for documents and testimony from top Justice Department and White House aides including political strategist Karl Rove. It seemed likely the next act in the political drama would be a separate vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a second set of subpoenas for Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and William Kelley, who was Miers' deputy.

The disclosures about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year have triggered allegations by Democrats that the White House and Justice Department conspired to replace the prosecutors for political reasons. The Justice Department denies that, saying the dismissals were based on performance issues.

The House committee move Wednesday amounted to an act of defiance, coming a day after President Bush accused Democrats of plotting to use subpoenas in order to engage in a "partisan fishing expedition."

The White House has offered to allow congressional investigators to interview Rove and other officials in informal private interviews where they would not be under oath.

"The White House's offer provides nothing more than conversations. It does not allow this committee to get the information we need without transcripts or oaths," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

The vote authorized Conyers to issue the subpoenas at his discretion. The chairman said the action gives the committee the ability to continue "good-faith negotiations" with the White House regarding the terms of the questioning while "maintaining the option to move forward with our investigation."

White House officials warned Wednesday that if congressional committees issue subpoenas, their offer to permit private interviews would be withdrawn. "The moment subpoenas are issued, it means that they have rejected the offer," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Snow was careful, however, not to react to the House committee's vote to authorize the subpoenas. "There is an important distinction between authorizing subpoenas and issuing them," Snow said.

Republicans forced a delay in a vote on Senate subpoenas a week ago, and it was not clear whether any of the GOP members of the panel were now prepared to support them. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the panel, floated a compromise in which Rove and others would answer questions from selected lawmakers without being sworn in but with a transcription made. It was not clear whether that would satisfy either the White House or congressional Democrats.

A day after Bush gave his attorney general a vote of confidence, Gonzales appeared to be launching a campaign to save his job by repairing relations with prosecutors in the field and reaching out to political supporters.

His office released a dozen testimonials from Hispanic and law-enforcement groups, with many saying that Gonzales, the first Hispanic attorney general, was being unfairly held accountable for the fiasco.

Justice officials said Gonzales was planning a series of meetings with regional groups of U.S. attorneys, starting today in St. Louis. The department also said officials were planning to be in contact with individual U.S. attorney offices to "raise issues of mutual concern and discuss accomplishments."

In e-mail exchanges that have been made public in the past week, Justice officials were found to have mocked and disparaged some of the U.S. attorneys, which has strained relations between Washington and the field.