US Senate Democrats fired a new shot Wednesday in the row over the firing of eight federal prosecutors, as a key committee subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, compelled the top US law official to hand over any e-mails regarding top White House aide Karl Rove's alleged role in the affair.
Gonzales, who has fought a lonely rearguard action to hang on to his job, has until May 15 to hand over any data in the Justice Department's possession.
Prominent Democrats and even some of the president's Republican allies have called for Gonzales to resign over the furor, but President George W. Bush has expressed confidence in him.
The White House has said that some e-mails related to the storm, over eight prosecutors Bush opponents said were fired for political reasons, were mislaid.
"I continue to hope that the department will cooperate with the committees investigation, but it is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee's inquiry have not been produced," Leahy wrote in a letter to Gonzales.
Gonzales has insisted he did nothing improper in firing the prosecutors, despite the charges of political chicanery.
Most of the attorneys were fired in one fell swoop last December, ostensibly for poor performance. Senators want to know more about the possible role played in the firings by Rove, Bush's chief political adviser.
Democrats also want to know if some White House officials, beginning with Rove, destroyed e-mails to prevent them from falling in the hands of Congress.
