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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey agreed Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials involved in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys broke the law.

The move comes at the request of Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, which in a report released Monday detailed "substantial evidence" that partisan politics played a role in several of the ousters.

Gonzales "abdicated his responsibility to safeguard the integrity and independence of the department," said a statement from Inspector General Glenn Fine's office.

Mukasey appointed acting veteran federal prosecutor and acting Connecticut U.S. attorney Nora Dannehy to oversee the inquiry, virtually guaranteeing that the 18-month investigation will continue into the next administration.

Several of the prosecutors who were fired said they were pleased that the investigation would continue despite resistance from some administration officials.

"This report corroborates what my colleagues and I have been saying for the last 18 months: that the basis for our removal was improper, wrongful and now possibly criminal," said David Iglesias, the ousted U.S. attorney in New Mexico.

Fine and H. Marshall Jarrett, the head of the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, found the removal of Iglesias to be the most "troubling" example of the department inappropriately weighing political considerations.

In their 358-page report, Fine and Jarrett concluded that White House officials were more involved in the firings than the administration initially admitted.

However, their report said that investigators were impeded from resolving questions about the White House's actions because several former and current Bush aides, including former presidential political adviser Karl Rove, refused to cooperate with his investigation.

Their report recommended that Mukasey appoint a prosecutor who'd have the authority to demand more evidence from officials and determine whether lawmakers or former or current administration officials lied to Congress or obstructed justice.

George J. Terwilliger III, the lawyer representing Gonzales, asserted that the report "makes clear" that Gonzales did nothing wrong.

"It seems rather odd, then, that rather than bring the investigation to a close, the department would escalate the matter to the attention of a prosecutor," he said.

However, Mukasey, who took the helm of the Justice Department after Gonzales resigned a year ago amid the controversy, acknowledged that key questions remain unanswered.

The controversy was sparked by the 2006 firings of nine U.S. attorneys and a little-noticed change in the Patriot Act that allowed the Justice Department to install replacements without seeking congressional approval.