WASHINGTON (CNN) ? The Senate will hold a ?no confidence? vote on embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this Monday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, announced.
In a statement released Friday, Schumer said if all senators followed their conscience, ?this vote would be unanimous.?
?However, the president will certainly exert pressure to support the attorney general, his longtime friend,? Schumer added. ?We will soon see where people?s loyalties lie.?
The attorney general is under investigation by Congress over last year?s dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.
Last month, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Gonzales would resign before facing a ?substantial? no-confidence vote.
?I think that if and when he sees that coming, that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark,? the Pennsylvania senator told CBS? ?Face the Nation? on May 20.
But a day after Specter?s comments, Bush reiterated his support in Gonzales and denounced the prospect of a no-confidence vote as ?pure political theater.?
? CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
In a statement released Friday, Schumer said if all senators followed their conscience, ?this vote would be unanimous.?
?However, the president will certainly exert pressure to support the attorney general, his longtime friend,? Schumer added. ?We will soon see where people?s loyalties lie.?
The attorney general is under investigation by Congress over last year?s dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys.
Last month, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Gonzales would resign before facing a ?substantial? no-confidence vote.
?I think that if and when he sees that coming, that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark,? the Pennsylvania senator told CBS? ?Face the Nation? on May 20.
But a day after Specter?s comments, Bush reiterated his support in Gonzales and denounced the prospect of a no-confidence vote as ?pure political theater.?
? CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
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