I missed Kyle Sampson’s second session in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. In the morning session, Sampson, the recently resigned chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear he will not be Scooterized. He contradicted statements by his Gonzales, some of which were reportedly under oath. Some of Sampson’s answers were clearly half-truths but were probably sufficiently artful that he did not perjure himself.

AG’s Statement “Not Accurate”

Gonzales has made several statements disavowing any role in the firing of the eight U.S. Attorneys last December. He has said, “I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood.” He also said he never attended a meeting about the issue, but documents released by his office last Friday night showed that he was in at least one meeting that focused on the firings.

Sampson revealed more about the attorney general’s involvement today:

“I don’t think the attorney general’s statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate,” Sampson told a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

“I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign,” Sampson said.

Truthiness about Lam

Sampson appeared to be less than truthful when he was asked why he described former San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam as a “real problem” one day after she notified headquarters about her next steps in going after defense contractors suspected of bribing GOP Rep. Duke Cunningham.

Under questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sampson claimed he was referring to Lam’s poor record jailing “coyotes” who smuggle illegal aliens across the border into the United States.

However, no one at DOJ had ever bothered to address this complaint to the Lam herself. And Feinstein read a letter praising Lam’s work on the coyote issue from the director of field operations of the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency. Adele Fasano:

In support of Border Patrol referrals for prosecution, your office maintains a 100 percent acceptance rate of criminal cases while staunchly refusing to reduce felony charges to misdemeanors and maintaining a minimal dismissal rate and supporting special prosecution efforts.

When she was fired, Lam was involved in an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the ranking member on Appropriations.

Intimidating Phone Call

Sen. Feinstein also nailed Sampson for calling down an FBI agent who made a statement in the press that was favorable to Lam after Lam was fired.

At a hearing with FBI Director Robert Mueller this week, Feinstein said that Dzwilewski’s office had told her it had subsequently been contacted and “warned to say no more.” Under questioning today, Sampson acknowledged he had made the call to complain about Dzwilewski’s statement. But Sampson said he had merely “aske … why an FBI employee was commenting on that issue.”