Matt Ortega

Documents released late Friday show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales personally approved the firings of the U.S. attorneys, contradicting previous statements.

The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political firestorm surrounding the firings.

The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in the attorney general’s conference room, was the only time Gonzales met with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.

November 27 falls right into the 18-day gap that the Justice Department called a “lull.” Eleven days ago, Think Progress points out, Gonzales denied any involvement:

I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on … That’s basically what I knew as attorney general. [original emphasis]