Gonzales: 'I Serve at the Pleasure of the President'

March 14, 2007 — -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said today on "Good Morning America" that he served at the pleasure of the president and had no plans to resign from office.

Gonzales was responding to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's call for him to resign, amid accusations that his office had fired eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

"The buck should stop somewhere," Clinton told ABC News senior political correspondent Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview. Clinton added that "the attorney general -- who still seems to confuse his prior role as the president's personal attorney with his duty to the system of justice and to the entire country -- should resign."

George Stephanopoulos talked to Gonzales today on "GMA" about the controversy.

Stephanopoulos: Sen. Clinton says that you should resign. What's your response?

Gonzales: Good morning. I'm focused on doing my job as attorney general. Obviously I'm not happy with the way some of the decisions were made, with respect to these seven United States attorneys.

We've discovered some of the problem. We're going to work with the Congress to make sure they fully understand what happened here.

Stephanopoulos: But Mr. Attorney General, something does seem fishy here. Five of the eight dismissed were involved in high profile political corruption cases. One was being complained about because he wasn't going after Democrats aggressively enough. So it really does appear here, at least, like you singled out prosecutors that weren't with the program.

Gonzales: You know, sadly, George, if that were the case, there would have been many, many more U.S. attorneys who would have been asked to leave. Because we have public corruption investigations and prosecutions going all over the country, at the state, federal and local level.

I'm very proud of the work of the attorneys in going after those public officials who breach the public trust. Those in no way had anything to do with those decisions. I would never retaliate or make a decision that would interfere with an ongoing investigation. The fact that an investigation is ongoing doesn't provide protection if they're not doing their job.