This whole thing is bugging me,” said Tom Heffelfinger, who says he doesn’t know why he might have been under scrutiny.

WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger’s name was on an early list of attorneys that the Justice Department considered firing, a congressional aide said Friday.

Heffelfinger, who was appointed by President Bush in 2001, resigned voluntarily in February 2006, nearly six months before the first of eight U.S. attorneys were sent packing.

Heffelfinger said Friday that if his name did appear on a list for possible termination — something he won’t believe until he sees it himself — then it was because he may have displeased “one or two people with the Department of Justice.”

He said he was confident that he had not raised hackles in the White House or the Minnesota congressional delegation.

“This whole thing is bugging me,” Heffelfinger said of the press reports and speculation about whether he was shoved out the door to make room for a more clubby prosecutor.

“It’s been going on now for a couple of months, so I’d just as soon get it out in the open.”

Heffelfinger said he’s been trying to understand why he might have been targeted. “The only thing I can think of is my advocacy on behalf of Native American issues,” Heffelfinger said.

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