U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan has retained a lawyer and is scheduled to meet privately with investigators with the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

The committee requested an interview with Ms. Buchanan in April, hoping to learn what she might know about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys across the country late last year.

The lawyer hired to represent Ms. Buchanan at the interview is the former U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Roscoe C. Howard Jr.

Mr. Howard would not say what his client plans to talk about at the judiciary offices, other than to say "she's cooperating."

"Frankly, right now, it's premature [to speculate about what they'll ask her]," he said. "They might go into areas that surprise us."

Mr. Howard was the federal prosecutor in Washington from 2001 to 2004 and also served as a member of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. Ms. Buchanan served a one-year term as chairwoman of that committee under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, beginning in April 2003.

"I've always thought she was outstanding," Mr. Howard said about Ms. Buchanan. "There are only 93 U.S. attorneys. It's a fairly exclusive club, but if I were going to rank them, I'd put her right at the top."

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who has been following the U.S. attorney scandal, was surprised to learn Ms. Buchanan had hired an attorney.

"A number of the [Department of Justice] officials have [retained counsel], but my sense is that those were the people who are in trouble," Mr. Tobias said. "I wouldn't see any necessity or really much of a reason for her to have counsel, except out of an abundance of caution."

He noted, though, that it might make sense for Ms. Buchanan to have a lawyer considering that the Executive Office for United States Attorneys has thus far played a central role in the firings, and she served as director there for a year.

Mr. Howard, who is now a partner in the Washington law firm Troutman Sanders, agreed.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice on April 16, requesting to interview Ms. Buchanan, as well as a number of other people, to determine what involvement she had in putting together a list of federal prosecutors to be fired.

According to a committee staff member, Ms. Buchanan will be the first person on that list to be interviewed. The staffer could not say if that interview will lead to a full public hearing, but said it is a possibility.

The committee is investigating both the firings and what some have called politically motivated prosecutions across the country.

Considered a staunch supporter of the Bush administration, Ms. Buchanan has served in a variety of national posts since her appointment in September 2001. She was director of the executive office from June 2004 to June 2005 -- the time frame which is apparently relevant to the current inquiry. The committee believes Ms. Buchanan may have been consulted in that role about preparing the list of who should be fired.

Her name first came up in the investigation when D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was interviewed by House and Senate investigators in mid-April. Mr. Sampson identified Ms. Buchanan as one of the senior Justice Department officials he spoke with about which U.S. attorneys should be asked to resign.

Then in her May 23 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, former White House liaison Monica Goodling confirmed that Mr. Sampson had consulted Ms. Buchanan, for whom she had worked.

The possibility of firings came up in early 2005. Mr. Ashcroft resigned in November 2004, and Mr. Gonzales took over the post in February 2005.

Ms. Goodling, who was hired in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys by Ms. Buchanan, resigned April 7, and originally refused to testify before the committee, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The committee granted her immunity from criminal charges to compel her testimony.

About a week before Ms. Goodling testified, it was revealed that Ms. Buchanan's name was included in a list of five people considered for firing. It was in an e-mail sent to Mr. Sampson on Nov. 1, 2006, by Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general.

After the e-mail surfaced, Mr. Elston denied he ever thought she should be fired, and said that all of the names in that message were suggested to him by others.

Ms. Buchanan, who was appointed U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania in September 2001, also serves as acting director of the Office on Violence Against Women.