Gonzo Keeps Digging

by: Foiled Goil

US Senators bluntly told President George W. Bush's embattled attorney general Tuesday that they didn't trust him, accused of him of dodging questions and raised doubts about his integrity.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endured a fearsome grilling at his latest appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, over a scandal over fired prosecutors and the Bush administration's legal strategy in the "war on terror."

"With a history of civil liberty abuses and cover-ups, this administration has squandered our trust," said Democratic committee chairman Patrick Leahy.

"I don't trust you," said Leahy directly to Gonzales, who has defied repeated calls from members of Congress for his resignation.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter engaged Gonzales in a testy debate, and raised the prospect of a special prosecutor being appointed to investigate the under-fire Justice Department.

And he told Gonzales his credibility had been breached "to the point of being actionable."

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer told Gonzales: "You just constantly change the story, seemingly to fit your needs to wiggle out of being caught, frankly, telling mistruths."

"The attorney general's lost the confidence of the Congress and the American people," said Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. He described the department as "shrouded in scandal," and told Gonzales: "I don't trust you."

"It looks to me ... as if the department is dysfunctional," added Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee's ranking Republican and a leading critic of Gonzales, particularly for his firing of nine federal prosecutors.

"What keeps you in the job, Mr. Attorney General?" asked Sen. Herbert Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat.

Gonzales refused to answer when asked if the White House was on solid legal ground in contending Congress cannot force the Justice Department to pursue a possible congressional contempt citation against the administration or its current or former aides.

"Your question relates to an ongoing controversy which I am recused from," Gonzales told Leahy. "I can't -- I'm not going to answer that question."

Congress is also examining Gonzales' role in Bush's warrantless domestic spying program, which critics have denounced as illegal.

Lawmakers noted that although Gonzales testified earlier this year "there has not been any serious disagreement" about the surveillance program, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told Congress in May that a number of top Justice Department officials threatened to quit over the issue.

The dispute was heated enough that Gonzales, then White House counsel, and Andrew Card, then Bush's chief of staff, went to a hospital in 2004 to discuss it with a critically ill John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general but had handed over his powers to his deputy.

"The disagreement that occurred ... was about other intelligence activities," Gonzales insisted under questioning. "It was not about the terrorist surveillance program."

"Mr. Attorney General, do you expect us to believe that?" Specter fired back.

That new wrinkle stemmed from Gonzales' testy exchange with Senator Arlen Specter, the panel's top Republican. Specter opened up with former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony to the panel in May over Gonzales' actions while serving as White House Counsel. Comey had alleged that Gonzales tried to convince an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery, to sign off on Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. "There are no rules saying he couldn't take back authority," Gonzales said, trying to explain that they had hoped Ashcroft might be able to sign off on an intelligence program due to expire the next day, a program that Comey as acting AG had refused to renew.

But what Specter really wanted to know was how that meeting squared with Gonzales' previous testimony that there had been no serious internal disagreements over the program. Gonzales seemed to believe he had a simple explanation. "The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities, and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities," the Attorney General said. "It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people."

Both Specter and later Senator Chuck Schumer latched onto Gonzales' puzzling comment. Schumer in particular brought up several examples where in sworn testimony Gonzales has named the Terrorist Surveillance Program as the one at issue during the hospital visit to Ashcroft's room. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy then ordered a complete review of Gonzales' statements to the committee. "This is such a significant and major point," Leahy said. "There's a discrepancy here in sworn testimony and we're going to find out who's telling the truth."

Specter later circled back to Gonzales on the matter, warning him: "My suggestion to you is you review your testimony to find out if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable," Specter said.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who was involved in the briefings at the time of the hospital visit, said the so-called Gang of Eight - the eight top bipartisan members of Congress on intelligence issues - were not briefed about any sunset the program was facing, as Gonzales claimed. He also emphatically refuted Gonzales' statements that there was more than one program under discussion at the time and that the Gang of Eight had agreed the program was so important that if it had been allowed to lapse they were considering emergency legislation.

"Once again he's making up something to protect himself and creating situations that never happened," Rockefeller said, adding that "based on what I know about it, I'd have to say" Gonzales has committed perjury.

Much of Gonzales' time was spent telling the committee he couldn't remember…

House Democrats, preparing for a vote today on contempt citations against President Bush's chief of staff and former counsel, produced a report yesterday that for the first time alleges specific ways that several administration officials may have broken the law during the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys.

The report says that Congress's seven-month investigation into the firings raises "serious concerns" that senior White House and Justice Department aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year may have obstructed justice and violated federal statutes that protect civil service employees, prohibit political retaliation against government officials and cover presidential records.

The investigation "has uncovered serious evidence of wrongdoing by the department and White House staff," Conyers says.

It also says that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior Justice aides "appear to have made false or misleading statements to Congress, many of which sought to minimize the role of White House personnel."

Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The documents underscore questions about Gonzales' credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director's office says the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, 2004, was about the terror surveillance program, or TSP.

Schumer called the memo evidence that Gonzales was not truthful in his testimony.

"It seemed clear to just about everyone on the committee that the attorney general was deceiving us when he said the dissent was about other intelligence activities and this memo is even more evidence that helps confirm our suspicions," Schumer said.

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Firing · DoJ · Attorney · Gonzales