WASHINGTON, 27 March 2007 — US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ “credibility” is at stake in an investigation of the dismissals of several federal prosecutors amid disclosures that Gonzales knew more about the firings than he recently has acknowledged, a bipartisan pair of Senate Judiciary Committee members said Sunday.

Gonzales, who said earlier this month that he was “not involved in any discussions about what was going on,” approved plans for the firings at an hour-long meeting in late November — two weeks before seven of the dismissals — according to the latest of many documents the Justice Department has released.

Gonzales’ investigation has triggered a dispute between Congress and the White House over the testimony of top presidential aides. After his chief of staff’s resignation in the firings uproar, the attorney general told reporters that he “was not involved in seeing any memos,” — a task he said was left to his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. President Bush has said he stands solidly behind Gonzales, who was White House counsel before becoming attorney general in 2005. Several Democrats and a small number of Republicans already have called for Gonzales’ resignation, and Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has demanded that former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Bush political adviser Karl Rove testify under oath about any role they had in the firings. This has resulted in some lawmakers complaining that President Bush is flouting Congress and the public with his Iraq policies and his protection of his top president aides. They are considering impeachment as an option, a Republican senator said Sunday.

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush’s impeachment.

“Any president who says ‘I don’t care’ or ‘I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else’ or ‘I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed’ — if a president really believes that, then there are...ways to deal with that,” Hagel said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

The White House had no immediate reaction to Hagel’s comments.

Hagel, who is considering a presidential run, said lawmakers now were ready to stand up to the president when necessary. In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as someone who didn’t believe he was accountable to anyone.

“You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment,” Hagel told the magazine.

Meanwhile, senators were out in force on the Sunday talk shows to weigh in on the Gonzales investigation.

“The attorney general’s statement of just a few days ago has been contradicted by a fact,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He was involved in a meeting. ...It really raises a question of credibility.

“This shadow, this cloud, across the US attorney offices all across the country has to be lifted,” Durbin said, adding of Gonzales: “I don’t believe he enjoys the confidence of the American people or the Congress.”

Growing questions within Gonzales’ own party about his credibility follow the release last week of Justice Department documents that show he took part in a high-level meeting Nov. 27 held to plan the firings, despite his repeated assertions that he had delegated the personnel decisions to his staff.

“There are so many contradictions in what the attorney general has already told us,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania. “We have to have an attorney general who is truthful. If we find that he has not been candid and truthful, that is a very compelling reason for him not to stay on.”

Despite the deepening crisis of confidence surrounding the nation’s top law enforcement officer, some observers expressed doubt that President Bush would willingly abandon his close friend and adviser. They said the White House fears the almost-certain battle that would ensue if Bush has to get a replacement for Gonzales confirmed by the Senate.