WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department considered dismissing many more U.S. attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified last week that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since June, and other administration officials have said only a few others were suggested for removal.

In fact, Mr. Gonzales' former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, recommended more than two dozen U.S. attorneys for termination, according to lists compiled by him and his colleagues, the sources said.

They amounted to more than a quarter of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys. At least 13 of those known to have been targeted are still in their posts.

It is unclear how many knew they had been considered for removal. "Really? I wasn't aware of that," U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby of Maine said yesterday, when asked about her inclusion on the lists. Her name crops up first in February 2005 and subsequently three more times -- most recently, a month before most of the dismissals were carried out last December.

The number of names demonstrates the breadth of the search for prosecutors to dismiss. The names also hint at a casual process in which the people most consistently considered for replacement were not always those ultimately told to leave.

When shown the lists of firing candidates late yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., perhaps the most outspoken critic of the way Mr. Gonzales handled the prosecutor dismissals, said they "show how amok this process was. He added: "When you start firing people for invalid reasons, just about anyone can end up on a list. It looks like the process was out of control, and if it hadn't been discovered, more would have been fired."

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department would not confirm which U.S. attorneys were included on the lists. He said they "reflect Kyle Sampson's thoughts for discussion during the consultation process" and were often compiled long before the bulk of the firings were carried out. "Whether they are on any list or not, U.S. attorneys currently serving enjoy the full confidence and support of the attorney general and Department of Justice," he said.

One memo sent to Mr. Sampson last November from Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, suggested firing Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, who supervised the nation's prosecutors for a year and now heads the Office of Violence Against Women, sources said.

In mid-April, House Judiciary Committee members asked to interview Ms. Buchanan, believing that, in her supervisory capacity, she may have been consulted about preparing the list of the prosecutors who were to be fired. Justice spokesman Roehrkasse said then that his department was reviewing the House panel request, and he was unsure when a decision might come on her interview.

The same e-mail also listed prosecutor Christopher Christie in New Jersey, a major GOP donor who has undertaken several high-profile public corruption probes -- including one into the real estate deals of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. -- and who announced indictments in a terrorism case last week.

Reached last night, Mr. Christie said Mr. Elston contacted him in mid-March. Mr. Elston told him that he had put Mr. Christie's name on a list Nov. 1, 2006, along with four other U.S. attorneys, and that a redacted copy was being turned over to Congress.

"I was completely shocked. No one had ever told me that my performance had been anything but good," Mr. Christie said. "I specifically asked him why he put my name on the list. He said he couldn't give me an explanation."

He added that Mr. Elston apologized, but that he refused to accept it. "I still, to this day, don't know how I got taken off the list," he said.

The Justice documents that contain the names of firing candidates have been released in censored form as part of the congressional probe into the U.S. attorney firings. The public versions of those records include only names of U.S. attorneys that Justice has acknowledged firing last year.

But sources who have examined or been briefed on the full records identified at least 26 names in total, including the nine prosecutors fired last year and another, Karl K. "Kasey" Warner of Charleston, W.Va., who was dismissed in August 2005. The remaining 16 include three who resigned from their posts after appearing on one or more lists.

Several U.S. attorneys included on the lists declined to comment yesterday, and others did not respond to phone messages.

The documents do not specify why prosecutors were moved on or off the evolving lists, why their removals were contemplated or why some kept their jobs, the sources said.

Three U.S. attorneys resigned while they were under consideration for dismissal: William Leone of Colorado, Thomas Heffelfinger of Minnesota and David York of Mobile, Ala.

Another prosecutor, Ana Mills Wagoner of Greensboro, N.C., is included on three lists. Documents show that Monica Goodling, a Gonzales aide set to testify next week in Congress, removed her from consideration because of her work prosecuting gun crimes.