Washington ? The Justice Department released a list of internal documents Thursday focusing on lawmakers’ concerns and media questions about the firings of eight federal prosecutors, but the department resisted congressional demands for copies of the memos.

The list of 159 e-mails and memos, spanning nearly three months, at the least demonstrates concern about how the dismissals were being publicly received before they erupted into a firestorm that has resulted in calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

The small pile of documents, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday night, also included e-mails about articles published in The Washington Post and The New York Times that quoted unidentified Justice officials justifying the firings. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said congressional investigators requested those two stories to determine who the unidentified officials were.

The new documents were released on the eve of closed-door congressional testimony by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. Documents listed as not being released were all authored by Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ former chief of staff, who resigned March 12 over the handling of the firings.

The list briefly describes each document being withheld. It shows that many of the memos and e-mails involve internal discussions over conversations with lawmakers.

“Request for information from Sen. Ensign re: dismissal of Bogden,” reads the description of one, dated Dec. 8 – two days after Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bodgen and six other prosecutors were ordered to quit. “Discussion with Sen. Pryor staff re: ways a person can become a USA,” reads another on Dec. 18. “USA” stands for U.S. attorney.

The senators named in the e-mails are John Ensign, R-Nev., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Pryor had objected to the firing of U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock, who was replaced by Tim Griffin, a protege of White House political adviser Karl Rove.

The House Judiciary Committee has demanded the full text of documents that had been partially or completely blacked out among nearly 6,000 pages of e-mails, calendar pages and memos released to Congress.