July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Judiciary Committee members accused Attorney General Alberto Gonzales of misleading them and hinted at perjury charges over his testimony about the Bush administration's surveillance of suspected terrorists.

``You come here seeking our trust,'' Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, told Gonzales at a hearing in Washington today. ``I don't trust you.''

Lawmakers voiced incredulity and disdain at Gonzales's answers to questions about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the description of a visit he made as White House counsel to a hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004. Gonzales was seeking Ashcroft's reauthorization of Bush administration terrorist intelligence activities.

Several senators cautioned Gonzales to carefully review the transcript of his answers to make sure he was testifying truthfully. ``Your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable,'' said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's ranking Republican.

Any attempt by the panel to bring perjury charges against Gonzales would require the cooperation of the Justice Department.

Gonzales defended the hospital visit and denied that he tried to pressure Ashcroft, who was under sedation and in intensive care, to approve the intelligence program. ``I didn't press'' Ashcroft, Gonzales said, disputing elements of earlier testimony to Congress by James Comey, Ashcroft's former deputy.

Expressing Disbelief

``Do you expect us to believe that?'' Specter said when Gonzales insisted the program at issue wasn't the administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program. President George W. Bush confirmed the program's existence in December 2005 after it was revealed in news accounts.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and was vice chairman in 2004, told reporters that Gonzales fabricated his account about a White House briefing of a group of congressional leaders called the ``Gang of Eight'' on the intelligence operation hours before the visit to Ashcroft's hospital room.

``He is making up something to protect himself'' and justify the hospital visit, Rockefeller said after he was told about the attorney general's testimony during lunch with Democratic colleagues. Asked if Gonzales had perjured himself, Rockefeller told reporters: ``based upon what I know about it, I'd have to say yes.''

Gonzales testified that the ``Gang of Eight,'' which included leaders of the House and Senate intelligence panels, agreed that the operation should continue ``at least for now, despite the objections of Mr. Comey.''

Single Intelligence Operation

Rockefeller said the lawmakers received only perfunctory briefings on a single intelligence operation, the terrorist surveillance program Bush made public in late 2005.

``They were not telling us, in fact, what was going on,'' Rockefeller said.

``The attorney general stands by his testimony,'' Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said later. ``We find Chairman Rockefeller's statements about his lack of familiarity with this issue puzzling since the chairman's committee has been conducting oversight on this very specific issue.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said in a statement that she attended the meeting and ``made clear my disagreement with what the White House was asking'' regarding an intelligence program.

Specter voiced frustration at Gonzales's reluctance to discuss the impending constitutional dispute between Congress and Bush over the president's refusal to allow White House aides to testify about last year's U.S. attorney firings.

`It's Hopeless'

``I am not going to pursue that question because it's hopeless,'' Specter said after Gonzales declined to discuss the dispute, saying he was disqualified because of his involvement in the firings.

Gonzales's handling of the dismissals has prompted calls by Democrats and Republicans alike for his removal as House and Senate committees investigate whether the prosecutors were fired for improper political reasons.

The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote tomorrow to consider contempt of Congress citations against Bush's chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, and former counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to cooperate with its investigation.

The White House said this week that Bush would order the Justice Department not to prosecute his aides for contempt of Congress. Spokesman Tony Snow cited a legal opinion by the Justice Department that a law requiring such prosecutions for contempt didn't apply to White House aides when the president has asserted executive privilege.

Special Prosecutor

Specter suggested that a special prosecutor could be appointed for that purpose and, if not, the Senate should consider using its inherent constitutional powers to conduct a contempt trial of officials who resist subpoenas.

Lawmakers questioned Gonzales's assertion during testimony on Feb. 6, 2006, that there was no disagreement within the Justice Department about Bush's program to wiretap suspected terrorists' international telephone calls without warrants.

Today, the attorney general said that, when he visited Ashcroft in the hospital, the dispute was over ``other intelligence activities,'' not the terrorist surveillance program.

Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold criticized what he called Gonzales's ``pattern of intentionally misleading Congress again and again.''

``How can you say you haven't deceived the committee?'' New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer asked the attorney general.

Comey's Testimony

Comey described the disagreement in Senate testimony on May 15, when he disclosed Gonzales's visit to the hospital following Ashcroft's emergency gallbladder surgery. Comey said Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card pressured Ashcroft to approve extension of an intelligence program.

Without describing the specific intelligence effort, Comey said he and top Justice Department officials, including FBI Director Robert Mueller, had threatened to resign unless the program was changed. Comey said Bush changed the program to meet the Justice Department's concerns about its legality after he personally met with the president.

Lawmakers said they didn't believe Gonzales's assertion that Comey was referring to another intelligence operation and not the terrorist surveillance program publicly disclosed in late 2005.

``How can we trust your leadership when the basic facts about serious questions that have been in the spotlight, you just constantly change the story, seemingly to fit your needs to wiggle out of being caught, frankly, telling mistruths?'' Schumer said.

Not `Credible'

``I do not find your testimony credible,'' Specter said. The senator said he believed that Comey was talking about the terrorist surveillance program.

Specter and other lawmakers told Gonzales the department suffers from low morale because he remains as attorney general.

``Is your department functioning?'' Specter asked.

Gonzales defended the agency's performance, saying ``the way you measure morale is you measure output,'' which he said has ``been outstanding.''

``I've decided to stay and fix the problems'' at the Justice Department, Gonzales said. ``I am focused on doing the work of the people of this country'' to keep the U.S. safe from terrorism and protect children from predators, he said.

``I don't know how you can say you can help solve the problem'' of low morale, said Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. ``It appears to a lot of people that you are the problem.''

During a break, Leahy told reporters there was ``absolutely no basis for the attorney general to state that everything is going well here.'' The senator added, ``I don't know who he is talking to.''

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 24, 2007 19:03 EDT