Cannon defends firings, Gonzales on Fox News
During the program, which aired Saturday morning, Cannon debated Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, about the new information indicating Gonzales was more involved in the firing of the U.S. attorneys than was previously thought.
The Justice Department on Friday released documents showing Gonzales attended a Nov. 27 meeting to discuss the pending dismissals, which contradicted his earlier claims that he had not been involved. Cannon, one of the main Republicans involved in the House Judiciary Committee's probe into the firing, said he stood by Gonzales, which coincides with President Bush's public show of support.
"You got 3,000 pages already released and many more now that indicate that there was a great deal of staff work going into this and they had a culminating meeting where it was talked about, among some other things.... This is highly consistent with what the attorney general said in the past," Cannon said. "I don't think there's anything new here."
"We have e-mails that show that the White House was intimately involved, (so) the attorney general had knowledge that in fact these eight U.S. attorneys were fired," Jackson-Lee said.
During the debate, Jackson-Lee clutched a copy of the Constitution in her hand and repeatedly said she wanted to "ensure that the justice system and legal system" weren't failing for the American people, hinting that the ordeal was a result of corruption.
"There is nothing wrong with firing a U.S. attorney for reasons of politics. The fact is, the Democrats have been alleging corruption, (but) there is nothing on the table yet that would indicate corruption," Cannon said. "U.S. attorneys are political and they exist to pursue the agenda of the president, not their own."
During the debate, which lasted less than five minutes, Cannon and Jackson constantly talked over one another and ignored interruptions from the moderator, Catherine Herridge.
"We're going to be talking about this one for a long time," Herridge said.
E-mail: abreton@desnews.com
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