U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert of Charlotte was among the attorneys whom federal Justice Department officials wanted removed as part of a sweeping housecleaning this winter, according to e-mail messages released this week to the House and Senate judiciary committees.

Shappert, a Republican who has been on the job since May 2004, was on a list under the category, "USAs [U.S. attorneys] We Now Should Consider Pushing Out," according to the e-mail messages.

In the end, she was allowed to stay on.

It is unclear why Shappert was under scrutiny. But among her prosecutions in the past year was that of Sam Currin, a top figure in North Carolina Republican circles.

Currin and two co-defendants were indicted in April. Currin was charged with seven felonies, including tax fraud conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice and witness tampering in a fraud case involving offshore investments. He pleaded guilty to three charges in November and is awaiting sentencing.

Currin is a former U.S. attorney who worked in the Raleigh office covering the Eastern District. He also is a former Superior Court judge and former chairman of the state Republican Party.

Shappert is the latest name to surface in the ongoing Washington scandal involving the firing of eight U.S. attorneys across the country. The Justice Department initially said the attorneys had poor performance reviews, but interviews and testimony before Congress show that some attorneys felt pushed to step up investigations into Democrats or go lightly on Republican targets.

This week, the agency released more than 150 pages of e-mail messages and documents to the House and Senate judiciary committees investigating the firings. They include e-mail discussions of which attorneys to remove and how to deal with repercussions.

Shappert said Thursday evening that she had no idea she was on the agency's list.

"I have received no political pressure on anything," she said. "This office has had outstanding success under my leadership. And I am not concerned about losing my job."

Shappert wouldn't comment on the Currin case.

In the e-mail messages, Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, detailed a list of attorneys who could be removed from their posts.

In a Sept. 13 e-mail message to White House counsel Harriet Miers, Sampson broke down the names into several categories, including those who were leaving on their own, those already being "pushed out," and those who should be next to go.

Shappert's name was in the last group, "Section V."

Her name was whited-out from e-mail messages released to the committees.

But another e-mail message makes reference to the list:

"I recommend removing W.D.N.C. from Section V," responded Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House.

Those initials stand for Western District of North Carolina, where Shappert is the U.S. attorney.

"There are plenty of others there to start with," Goodling continued, "and I don't think she merits being included in that group at this time."

Shappert has made headlines in Charlotte for her prosecutions in drug trafficking, prostitution and organized crime.

She began prosecuting cases in Charlotte in 1990. She won an award from the Justice Department in 1996 for her work on neighborhood gangs.

She was nominated by President Bush to be U.S. attorney in 2003 when Bush nominated her boss, then-U.S. Attorney Robert Conrad, for a judgeship.

Shappert's appointment was supported by Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, and then-Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat.

(Charlotte Observer reporter Gary Wright contributed to this report.)