Gonzales, after roundtable with Fitzgerald, cuts press conference short
 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after attending a round-table discussion with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, cut a subsequent news conference short, The Chicago Tribune reports.
"A scheduled 15-minute news conference with Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales was quickly cut short in Chicago on Tuesday, with Gonzales leaving the room after just three questions about the controversial dismissal of a group of U.S. attorneys," writes Jeff Coen for the Tribune.
Gonzales was at Chicago's Dirksen Federal Building to join Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the CIA leak case who received a lukewarm rating in an internal Justice review in 2005, in a round-table discussion regarding a national campaign to promote child safety on the web, the Tribune reports.
But Gonzales "again found himself defending his actions in the firings, which some say were politically motivated," writes Coen, who adds that "the attorney general's handling of the aftermath has resulted in demands that he lose his own job."
Gonzales said, according to the Tribune, that "he wants his office to work to 'reassure the American people that nothing improper happened here' and insisted he has been forthcoming about his role."
As for the interaction between Gonzales and Fitzgerald, they "sat at the head of the table in a meeting of law-enforcement officials about the campaign, and they gave no hint of any tension between them," says Coen.
The short post-meeting news conference, Coen continues, "ended before Gonzales could clarify the record on [Fitzgerald]."
Excerpts from the registration-restricted Tribune article, available in full here, follow...
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Gonzales said he is taking responsibility for the firings of eight prosecutors and that he believes the record is clear on his involvement. He has drawn criticism in recent days because, after he initially said he was "not involved in any discussions about what was going on," it was revealed in documents last week that he approved the firings at an hourlong meeting in November, two weeks before seven of the prosecutors were dismissed.
"I directed the release of 3,000 pages of documents [on the matter]," Gonzales said Tuesday. "I directed that DOJ employees go up and present testimony."
Gonzales then was asked how that push for cooperation squares with the decision by his senior counselor Monday not to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Monica Goodling invoked her 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination at the advice of her attorneys.
"I'm not going to comment on the decision by an employee of the department to exercise her constitutional rights," Gonzales said.
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