WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Republican U.S. attorney general from the first Bush administration told a House panel Tuesday he thinks the Justice Department had political aims in prosecuting a high-profile Democratic coroner from Pennsylvania.

Dick Thornburgh, whose law firm is representing coroner Cyril Wecht in the pending trial and who acknowledged speaking as an advocate for Wecht, said the outspoken Democrat was ''an ideal target for a Republican U.S. attorney trying to curry favor with a (Justice) Department which demonstrated that if you play by its rules, you will advance.''

Politics should never play into a decision to prosecute, Thornburgh said at a House Judiciary hearing examining ''selective prosecution'' by the Justice Department, but ''sadly, that appears to have been so in the case against Dr. Wecht.''

Republicans shot back that Thornburgh was simply trying to help his client in a public forum where he knows the Justice Department cannot discuss the case, which is still awaiting trial.

''Your testimony to be blunt is the most pathetic example of ... hearsay and innuendo that I've heard in my seven years on this committee,'' said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla. ''It's so far fetched that I'm almost embarrassed being an attorney listening to it.''

The Wecht prosecution on charges of theft, mail fraud and wire fraud was one of three corruption cases that Democrats spotlighted Tuesday as part of a broad investigation into White House interference with Justice Department activities. After months of questioning whether the Bush administration fired U.S. attorneys who were not ''loyal Bushies,'' Democrats said the cases provide strong evidence that some government lawyers may have done the White House's bidding.

The other cases discussed were the successful prosecution of former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on bribery and other charges and the overturned conviction of Wisconsin state procurement official Georgia Thompson in a contracting case.

Testifying about the Alabama case, former Siegelman lawyer Doug Jones disputed the Justice Department's claim that career prosecutors initiated and handled the prosecution.

Jones, a former U.S. attorney under President Clinton, said he was given strong hints by local prosecutors in 2004 that the case might be fading after several years of investigation. But in late 2004, Jones said, local prosecutor Steve Feaga told him that officials in Washington had ordered a ''top to bottom'' review.

Shortly after that, he said, Washington seemed to take over.

''All of this was absolutely stunning and a complete reversal of what we had been told only a few months before,'' Jones said. ''It was as if the case started all over again.''

Last year, Siegelman was convicted on charges stemming from his appointment of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to an influential hospital regulatory board in exchange for Scrushy arranging contributions to Siegelman's campaign for a state lottery. Siegelman is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence.

The department has insisted that politics were not considered in any of the cases. Republicans, who declined to call any witnesses for Tuesday's hearing, said the matters were best left to the courts.

Thornburgh, who also served two terms as Republican governor of Pennsylvania, said that as attorney general he set up strict guidelines to prevent political influence at Justice, ordering that communications from the White House come only through his office.