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The Reluctant ExecutionerKyle Sampson cuts down his ex-boss, Alberto Gonzales.

By Emily BazelonPosted Thursday, March 29, 2007, at 6:47 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

How could Sampson reconcile the e-mail and the letter? Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., wanted to know.

Sampson had only lame answers. "At the time I drafted that letter, I was not aware of Karl Rove having expressed an interest in Tim Griffin being appointed," he said. (Meanwhile, the DoJ apologized for the letter before the hearing, saying it may have provided "inaccurate and incomplete information" about Rove's role to Congress.)

So, what was the basis for Sampson's referral to Rove in the December e-mail? Schumer followed up when it was his turn at bat. "A conversation with Scott Jennings [Rove's deputy]?"

"Yes," Sampson answered. "I talked to Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor"—another Rove aide—"and I assumed because it was important to them, it was important to Karl."

But then you still drafted the February 23 DoJ letter? Schumer pressed. "Don't the two seem to be in contradiction?"

Sampson offered only a longer version of his earlier lameness. "When I drafted the letter in February 2007, I remember thinking to myself, am I aware that Karl Rove is interested in Tim Griffin being appointed? I thought to myself, I'm not aware Mr. Rove has that interest. For all I know, I'm not even sure he knows about this. I knew people who work for him are interested." This, of course, makes no sense. Karl Rove's deputies don't run around axing prosecutors behind his back. Their job is to do what he tells them to do.

Sampson hit another rough patch when Schumer questioned him about an idea he said he came up with on his own—to include Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney in Chicago, on the dismissal list. At that time, Fitzgerald was prosecuting Scooter Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff. Sampson hastened to say that when he floated firing Fitzgerald—mid-Libby affair—with White House Counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, they "looked at me as if I had said something totally inappropriate, and I had."

But that wasn't enough for Schumer. He wanted to know if Miers or Kelley had condemned Sampson, or suggested taking him off the prosecutor-dismissal beat. Sampson said no. Apparently no one questioned his performance until the DoJ's handling of the firings went awry last month. At that point, it was Sampson who lowered the boom on himself. "I failed, so I resigned," he said. Maybe that's his real message, however unwillingly delivered, to Alberto Gonzales.

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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and an editor of DoubleX.
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