House panel subpoenas Justice Dept.

The House Judiciary Committee issued a broad subpoena Tuesday for new documents related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, with panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. warning Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales that time had run out for disagreements over how much material would be handed over.

“We have been patient,” said Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, but the Justice Department had not shown “any meaningful willingness” to cooperate with the widening investigation by congressional Democrats.

More than 3,400 pages of e-mails and other documents were released to the committee last month. The panel wants more information about other prosecutors who were considered for removal, as well as whether politics played a role in deciding who was terminated and who was retained.

“This information is clearly relevant,” Conyers wrote to Gonzales in a letter accompanying the subpoenas.

He said the investigation was turning to whether prosecutors were fired or kept “based on improper considerations, including their willingness to make decisions as to prosecution of public corruption cases based on whether it helped, or hurt, partisan political objectives.”

The subpoena gives Gonzales until Monday to provide the material -- the day before he is to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in what many observers consider a make-or-break session for the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Bush administration officials say they have been cooperating.

“The Justice Department has been working very hard to be fully responsive to the request, as the president asked them to do,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said: “We have provided an extraordinary amount of information to the Congress so that they and the American people understand the process behind the decision to replace eight of 93 U.S. attorneys.”

He said some Justice Department officials had testified about the firings, and others had given private, on-the-record interviews with committee members. This morning, William W. Mercer, acting associate attorney general, is to meet with the panel.

Roehrkasse said there were many privacy concerns about the release of other documents, particularly those dealing with personnel, and department officials “still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress” about the materials.

But Conyers worried that delays over new documents might be an attempt to thwart the investigation. The materials, he told Gonzales, “could shed light on whether department officials may have attempted to obstruct our primary investigation or mislead Congress.”

The subpoenas call for numerous documents, including communications between the Justice Department and the White House about orchestrating the firings, and communications between members of Congress about whether they were pushing for terminations.

Two fired U.S. attorneys have said they felt pressure from Republican officials. David C. Iglesias of Albuquerque, N.M., said he received a phone call from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) about a corruption investigation into Democrats. John McKay of Seattle said Ed Cassidy, an aide to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), called him about the status of a voting fraud investigation involving the state’s tight governor’s race in 2004.

The House committee released copies of correspondence between the panel and the Justice Department in the last few weeks as they sparred over how much material would be made available.

On March 8, Conyers and Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), chairwoman of the House subcommittee on administrative law, said there were “serious issues concerning possible undue influence and obstruction of justice.”

On March 19, Richard A. Hertling, acting assistant attorney general, said there was no politics at play in the firings. “The American public must have confidence that such considerations of partisan gain did not factor into the decision to ask for the resignation of these eight federal prosecutors,” he said.

Some members of Congress were not satisfied and wanted more documents, eventually issuing the subpoena Tuesday.

“The House Judiciary Committee has bent over backward,” Sanchez said. “We have taken every available step to avoid issuing subpoenas.”

Four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Gonzales on Monday seeking more documents. They said they would issue a subpoena if the materials were not released by today.

Also Tuesday, six Senate Democrats sent a letter to Gonzales asking for information on whether “politics may have played an inappropriate role” in U.S. Atty. Stephen M. Biskupic’s prosecution of a Wisconsin state employee accused of funneling business to a firm linked to the Democratic governor’s reelection campaign.

Last week, the employee, Georgia Thompson, was released from prison by an appeals court that said there was not enough evidence to warrant her conviction.

Meanwhile, Gonzales named Kevin J. O’Connor chief of staff to replace D. Kyle Sampson, who helped orchestrate the firings and later resigned. O’Connor is the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.

richard.serrano@latimes.com