Timeline: How the U.S. Attorneys Were Fired
Compiled by the U.S. News library staff
2007
March 29: Former Gonzales Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
March 26: Monica Goodling, senior counsel to Gonzales and liaison to the White House, declines to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
March 23: Goodling takes an indefinite leave of absence.
March 22: The Senate Judiciary Committee authorizes subpoenas for current and former White House officials Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and William Kelley.
March 21: The House Judiciary Committee votes to authorize subpoenas for Rove, Miers, Sampson, Kelley, and Scott Jennings.
March 20: President Bush offers to have White House aides, including Karl Rove, meet with members of Congress behind closed doors, without taking an oath, and without a transcribed report of the session. Democratic leaders reject the offer, saying the aides should testify under oath in public.
March 16: White House spokesman Tony Snow denies that Harriet Miers originally proposed firing all 93 U.S. attorneys: "The most certain thing I can say at this juncture is that Karl Rove has a recollection of Harriet having raised it with him, and his expressing to her that he thought it was a bad idea."
March 15: The attorney general's office agrees to make five current and former staff members available to the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sampson, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, and Michael Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
March 13: At the request of the House Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department releases documents detailing the firings of U.S. attorneys. The documents are available via the House Judiciary Committee.
March 12: Sampson resigns.
March 6: Six attorneys testify before the House and Senate judiciary committees. Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico testifies that after October 2006 phone calls from Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici: "I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to get these matters moving."
March 5: Battle announces his resignation as director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys; he made the December 7 phone calls to dismiss the U.S. attorneys.
Feb. 23: U.S. Attorney Margaret Chiara of Michigan announces her resignation, effective March 16.
Feb. 15: San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam's last day in office.
Feb. 13: Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and Brent Wilkes are indicted on 11 counts including corruption, bribery, fraud, and money laundering.
Feb. 6: Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the U.S. attorney firings: "The indisputable fact is that United States attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. They come and they go for lots of reasons."
Jan. 18: While testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admits that several U.S. attorneys have been asked to resign: "No, I don't deny that. What I'm saying is–but that happens during every administration during different periods for different reasons. And so the fact that that's happened, quite frankly, some people should view that as a sign of good management. What we do is we make an evaluation about the performance of individuals, and I have a responsibility to the people in your district that we have the best possible people in these positions."
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