EncyclopediaGonzales, Alberto R.
Gonzales, Alberto R. (gonzăl'is) [key], 1955–, American government official, b. San Antonio, Tex. After serving in the Air Force (1973–75), he attended the Air Force Academy and graduated from Rice Univ. (B.A., 1979) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1982). He was in private practice in Texas until he was named general counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush in 1994. Texas secretary of state after 1997, he was appointed to the Texas supreme court in 1999. After Bush became president (2001), Gonzales was named White House counsel. He has been criticized for helping craft U.S. policies that have increased restrictions on access to government information and disregarded the Geneva Conventions, especially with respect to the use of torture in interrogating enemy prisoners. In 2004, President Bush nominated Gonzales to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general. In 2007 he again became a focus of controversy when his statements—some of them under oath—concerning why several federal prosecutors were dismissed were contradicted by testimony from his subordinates and others. He was strongly criticized by both Democrats and some prominent Republicans in Congress, but remained in office with the support of the president.
See biography by B. Minutaglio (2006).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
