Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday urged Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s former chief of staff Kyle Sampson to testify voluntarily about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys that has erupted in a firestorm of controversy. 

Leahy added he hopes to have the former aide, who resigned over the issue, testify next Thursday. 

“Frankly, I will resent anyone who tries to hurt the man,” Hatch said.

In response to a letter from Leahy and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the committee’s ranking Republican, asking for voluntary testimony, Sampson’s lawyer Bradford Berensen asked for more time to review the request.