White house expresses confidence in Attorney General Gonzales

U.S. President George W. Bush has all the confidence in the world in Alberto Gonzales as the attorney general for the United States of America, a top White House aide said on Tuesday.

"President Bush did not order Gonzales to carry out any politically motivated purge of federal prosecutors, and there was no directive given, as far as telling him to fire anybody or anything like that," said Senior Bush adviser Dan Bartlett, rejecting Democratic calls for Gonzales' resignation.

Bartlett made the remarks in Merida, where Bush was wrapping up a week-long Latin America tour.

Gonzales told a press conference, after accepting the resignation of his chief of staff Kyle Sampson, he acknowledges that mistakes were made in the process of firing eight federal prosecutors, and he was concerned about the fact that incomplete information was communicated or may have been communicated to the Congress about the firings.

Senator Charles Schumer, No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, has accused the Justice Department of playing politics with the prosecutors' jobs on Tuesday, adding that "some of the prosecutors were fired for either investigating Republicans or failing to pursue cases against Democrats."

He has also renewed his call for Gonzales to resign and was joined by a host of other Democrats, including national party chairman Howard Dean and presidential hopeful John Edwards of North Carolina.

U.S. media reported earlier on Tuesday, the White House had suggested that the Justice Department fire all of the nation's 93 attorneys, but the latter only dismissed eight prosecutors.

Source: Xinhua