WASHINGTON, May 27: US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller threatened to quit this week if the White House ordered them to give back evidence seized in a disputed search of a lawmaker’s office, US media reported on Saturday.

President George W. Bush made a rare intervention into a criminal case on Thursday by ordering the material seized from the office of Representative William Jefferson, who is suspected of taking bribes, put under seal for 45 days.

The New York Times and Washington Post quoted unnamed government sources as saying that the threat by Gonzales, Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty was put to the White House before Bush acted to ease tensions.

The White House and Justice Department made no immediate comment on the reports.

An FBI raid on Jefferson’s Congress office on May 20 created a storm of protests from ruling Republican and opposition Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives.

They said the raid was “unconstitutional” because it represented a potential threat by the executive branch to legislative activities and demanded that all seized material be returned.

Gonzales and McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress, the New York Times said.

Several lawmakers are the subject of corruption inquiries and the newspaper said justice officials viewed the Congress protests “as largely a proxy fight for battles likely to come over criminal investigations into other Republicans in Congress.”—AFP