The White House Friday accused Democrats of a "crusade" against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after a senior US senator threatened to request a perjury inquiry into President George W. Bush's top law enforcement official.
White House spokesperson Dana Perino said Democrats in the Congress were involved in a "constant settling of scores" after they suggested that Gonzales who heads the US Justice Department, had lied in sworn testimony before Congress.
The accusation came after a top intelligence official contradicted Gonzales's testimony over a key White House meeting reportedly dealing with the controversial warrantless surveillance program aimed at terror threats.
Perino called the Democrats' criticisms of Gonzales a "crusade against him to destroy the attorney general."
"It's a constant settling of scores," she said, adding that Bush "has full confidence in the attorney general."
Perino's remarks Friday came amid an escalating battle between Congress and the White House over Gonzales's role in the surveillance program and in the allegedly politically motivated sacking of nine federal prosecutors.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said on Wednesday he is giving Gonzales until late next week to amend his testimony before Congress or he will request the Justice Department's inspector general to launch a perjury probe.
"I'll ask the inspector general to determine who's telling the truth," said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judicary Committee, US media reported.
The Democrat spoke a day after Gonzales faced a tough grilling before Leahy's committee with lawmakers saying they did not trust him and accusing him of sidestepping questions.
After the hearing, lawmakers pointed to documents that seemed at odds with Gonzales' version of a White House meeting in March 2004 with lawmakers.
According to a letter form the former director of US intelligence, John Negroponte, the White House meeting was a briefing on a controversial domestic spying program involving warrantless surveillance, the Washington Post and other papers reported.
But Gonzales has maintained the purpose of the meeting was to address "intelligence activities" that were under legal dispute and has denied the session focused on the warrantless wiretapping program.
Perino said that Gonzales could not answer straightforwardly the panel's questions because they involved a "highly sensitive" classified program that could not be discussed in public.
Gonzales had "one hand tied behind his back" in the hearings because of the classified nature of the program, she said.
