Fired Prosecutors Rated By Loyalty To Bush

(CNN) An e-mail from the Justice Department's Kyle Sampson in March 2005 laid out a simple formula for evaluating whether the 93 U.S. attorneys should stay or go.

On a chart given to then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, Sampson -- chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- listed attorneys in three categories:

"Bold = Recommend retaining; strong U.S. attorneys who have managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the president and attorney general.

"Strikeout = Recommend removing; weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against administration initiatives, etc.

"Nothing = No recommendation; have not distinguished themselves either positively or negatively."

Sampson was in charge of deciding which U.S. attorneys would be removed in a shakeup last year. Eight prosecutors were eventually removed. Sampson resigned from his post Monday, just as the e-mails he wrote were released publicly.

The e-mails show how closely officials in the White House and the Justice Department coordinated in deciding which names to include for firing, as well as the method and timing of the announcements. (Read Sampson's e-mail exchanges with administration officials - pdf)

The White House disclosed Tuesday the shakeup was first proposed by then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, who wanted to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys with "fresh blood" after President Bush's re-election in 2004, spokesman Tony Snow said.

In a three-page memo dated January 1, 2006, Sampson noted the practical and political obstacles of dismissing U.S. attorneys.

"Wholesale removal of U.S. attorneys would cause significant disruption to the work of the Department of Justice," he wrote. "Individual U.S. attorneys often were originally recommended for appointment by a home-state senator who may be opposed to the president's determination to remove the U.S. attorney."

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