Gonzales Distances Himself from Sampson Plan

Alberto Gonzales, during questioning by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said that he’d never intended to install Tim Griffin as U.S. Attorney for Little Rock using the Patriot Act provision — a plan that Kyle Sampson had advocated. Doing that was a “dumb idea,” Gonzales said. And he says that when Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) told him that he would not support Griffin’s nomination in December, he offered to have Pryor suggest replacements. That’ll be news to Pryor, who’s said that Gonzales appeared to be following Kyle Sampson’s plan to string him along, to run out the clock, when they spoke. Pryor has said publicly, repeatedly, that Gonzales lied to him.

Later in the hearing, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pressed Gonzales on this in a brutal line of questioning. We’ll have that up soon.