WASHINGTON -- Another Republican lawmaker is calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel said the country deserves an attorney general "whose honesty and capability are beyond question."

His statement comes a day after testimony revealed that Gonzales once tried to undermine the Justice Department when he was the White House legal counsel.

Former deputy attorney general James Comey testified Tuesday that Gonzales was part of an effort to get approval of the president's warrantless wiretapping program when he was the White House legal counsel.

Republican Sens. John McCain and John Sununu are among those who've also called for Gonzales to resign.

Pressure mounted on Gonzales from another quarter Wednesday, after he missed a Senate Judiciary Committee's deadline to deliver e-mails relating to the firings.

Tuesday's 2 p.m. deadline came and went with no response. A new deadline -- 10 a.m. Friday, May 18 -- was set, and the committee chairman, Patrick Leahy wrote an angry letter to Gonzales, demanding a reponse.

"You ignored the subpoena, did not come forward today, did not produce the documents and did not even offer an explanation for your noncompliance. Your action today is in defiance of the Committee’s subpoena without explanation of any legal basis for doing so," the Vermont senator wrote.

In a separate letter to White House legal counsel Fred Fielding, Leahy was also accusatory. Fielding had offered that White House aides could be interviewed -- but not under oath. The administration has denied it did anything improper in the firings, and Gonzales has said the e-mails cannot be found.

"There is evidence that White House officials were deeply involved in what appears to be an effort to impose political influence on federal law enforcement. If the White House continues its refusal to provide information to the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voluntary basis, I will have no choice but to issue subpoenas to try to get to the truth in this matter," Leahy wrote. (Read Leahy's full letter by clicking here.)

"The White House cannot have it both ways -- it cannot withhold the documents and witnesses and thereby stonewall the investigation and, at the same time, claim that it knows of nothing improper. The involvement of Mr. (Karl) Rove was initially denied but must now be conceded, as it was by the Attorney General and by the Attorney General's former chief of staff during their Senate Judiciary Committee testimony," he wrote.