Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) asked the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee not to hold a vote on the Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee until Sessions receives more information about the candidate, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

Sessions, the panel’s top Republican, wrote in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday that the record for Stephanie Villafuerte is “incomplete.” Read her questionnaire submitted to the panel here.

The Alabama senator told Leahy he had concerns about the firing of a federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around Villafeurte. President Barack Obama nominated Villafeurte on Sept. 30 to be Colorado’s top federal prosecutor.

Sessions also asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for using a restricted government database. Voorhis had assisted the 2006 campaign of Republican Bob Bob Beauprez, who ran an ad about an undocumented immigrant whose information was in the law enforcement database.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Villafuerte is a long-time aide to Gov. Bill Ritter (D), who was Beauprez’s opponent in 2006. Ritter has defended Villafuerte in the matter.

Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from the U.S. Attorney nominee. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

Sen. Jeff Sessions questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a hearing Wednesday about a fired federal agent connected to a controversy swirling around the U.S. Attorney nominee for Colorado, The Denver Post reported today.

Jeff Sessions (Getty Images)

The Alabama Republican asked Napolitano why Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis lost his job for accessing a restricted government database when his boss, Tony Rouco, wasn’t fired, despite a finding that Ruoco hadn’t been truthful about the use of the database, according to The Post.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Colorado U.S. Attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte asked people in the Denver District Attorney’s office to access the same database for political purposes. Republicans say it appears Voorhis was treated differently from Villafuerte.

Villafuerte, a long-time aide to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), has denied the allegations.

Voorhis was charged in 2007 with using the National Crime Information Center database to check the background on an undocumented immigrant whose case was featured in an ad by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. Voorhis said he was authorized to use the database by his supervisor. He was later acquitted by a federal jury.

“I am not personally familiar with this,” Napolitano said at the Department of Homeland Security oversight hearing, according to The Post. “But I will become personally familiar with it.”

Villafuerte has said her disputed contacts with the DA’s office in October 2006 concerned an alleged threat against then-candidate Ritter, not about accessing a database for political purposes, which could be a crime. Read our previous report here.

Colorado Republicans have called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Villafuerte. Sessions is the top Republican on the Judiciary panel. Yesterday, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the Justice Department to probe Villafuerte over the database allegations.

The Judiciary committee has yet to schedule a vote on her nomination. President Barack Obama tapped Villafuerte for the post on Sept. 30.