House Democrats pressed Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at a hearing on Thursday to provide specifics about why federal prosecutors were dismissed, but he stuck to his past assertions that, although ineptly handled, the dismissals were justified and appropriate.

A former deputy attorney general told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he regarded most of the fired U.S. attorneys as highly competent prosecutors who should not have been dismissed.

Federal authorities are investigating gifts and payments that Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada received as a congressman from an executive of a software company that got millions of dollars in federal contracts, government officials said Thursday.