Bush Defends Gonzales’s Decision

MERIDA, Mexico, March 14 — President Bush expressed confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales on Wednesday, but agreed that “mistakes were made” in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, and said it “troubles me” that lawmakers feel his administration was not straightforward.

As he wrapped up a six-day, five-nation tour of Latin America, Bush found himself again forced to confront a political furor back home. He took time out from his Mexican schedule to call Gonzales Wednesday morning and instruct him to go to Capitol Hill to repair his credibility problems with Congress. But Bush denied that politics drove the decision to fire the U.S. attorneys.

“I’ve heard those allegations about political decision making — it’s just not true,” Bush said during an appearance with Mexican President Felipe Calderón here before flying back to Washington in the afternoon. He added: “What Al did, and what the Justice Department did, was appropriate. U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. They can be removed by the president. What was mishandled was the explanation of the cases to Congress.”

Yesterday, Gonzales said he does not regret firing the eight prosecutors but he accepted responsibility for “mistakes” that triggered a congressional probe into whether White House officials and other Republicans exerted political pressure in the dismissals.

The president offered his first account of his own role in the matter, saying he heard complaints about U.S. attorneys from fellow Republicans and informed Gonzales about them but did not tell him to fire anyone. Bush recalled visiting Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill and hearing them grouse about prosecutors, although he said he did not believe they mentioned specific names. And other members approached him on other occasions, he said.

As Bush recounted, he told Gonzales about the grievances. “I said, ‘Have you heard complaints about . . . U.S. attorneys,’ ” Bush recalled, “and he said, ‘I have.’ But I never brought up a specific case nor gave him specific instructions. . . . It’s entirely appropriate and necessary for me to pass those complaints along.”

The dispute over the dismissed prosecutors intruded on Bush’s foreign tour for the second day, absorbing much of the discussion at the trip’s final session with reporters and taking up his aides’ time as they coordinated information and talking points with colleagues back in Washington.

Bush did not appear happy to be addressing the matter when he would rather have focused on his talks with Calderón about immigration, trade and drugs, but acknowledged that he would ask the same questions. He tried to strike a balance between defending his administration’s underlying actions while agreeing that his aides bungled the way they informed Congress.

Republican lawmakers as well as current and former administration officials have been exasperated at what they consider a self-inflicted political wound. The Justice Department and White House have provided shifting explanations about why the U.S. attorneys were pushed out and who was involved. The initial version suggested the prosecutors were poor performers, but it soon became clear some of them were given positive evaluations but that Republican lawmakers had lodged complaints in connection with politically sensitive cases.

“There was an easy way to handle this — to keep the White House out of it,” said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department spokesman in Bush’s first term. Justice, he said, should have thanked the dismissed prosecutors and given them strong recommendations. “Instead, the Justice Department made a strategic decision to come up with reasons for firing people, when they have the right to fire people. The reasons were appalling. The reasons amounted to character assassination. There is no room for that.”

At his news conference in Mexico, Bush noted that he has the power to remove U.S. attorneys and that other presidents have used it as well, calling it a “customary practice.” But presidents typically replace political appointees at the beginning of an administration, and veteran law enforcement specialists said they could not recall so many U.S. attorneys being removed at once in the middle of a term.

“I believe the reasons why were entirely appropriate,” Bush said, without detailing those reasons. “And yet the issue was mishandled.” Referring to Gonzales’s news conference in Washington on Tuesday, Bush said, “He’s right, mistakes were made, and I’m frankly not happy about it.”

The fact that lawmakers feel misled, the president added, “troubles me and it troubles the attorney general.”

Bush brushed off calls by Democrats to replace Gonzales, a longtime friend and adviser going back to their days in Texas. “I do have confidence in Attorney General Al Gonzales,” the president said.