May 22, 2007
Leahy & Specter Seek More Documents On Wiretap Program
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., again asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today for information about the justifications for the warrantless wiretapping program, saying his response so far has been "wholly inadequate."
The request followed testimony last week by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who revealed that the Justice Department had concerns about the legal basis for the program and refused to certify it for a period of time in 2004. Comey testified that Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card had approached then-Attorney General John Ashcroft while he was hospitalized, seeking his approval to renew the program.
"You have rebuffed all requests for documents and your answers to our questions have been wholly inadequate and, at times, misleading," Leahy and Specter wrote to Gonzales. They argued that the information is needed before the committee considers the administration's proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and set a June 5 deadline for the Justice Department to respond.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said it was reviewing the letter from Specter and Leahy.
"We cannot comment on internal discussions or deliberations that may or may have not taken place concerning classified intelligence activities," Boyd said. "The Terrorist Surveillance Program was a vital intelligence program that helped detect and prevent terrorist attacks. It was always subject to rigorous oversight and review."
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee today released a letter sent Monday by John Dowd, attorney for former Gonzales aide Monica Goodling, saying Goodling could not release without clearance from the Justice Department certain documents related to the panel's investigation of the firings last year of nine U.S. attorneys.
Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., responded with a letter today to Dowd demanding the documents and questioning Dowd's rationale for withholding them. Goodling will testify under a grant of immunity Wednesday and make what Dowd called in his letter a "limited production" of documents.
Posted at 3:30 PM
Posted to:
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Congress, James Comey
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