Did Gonzales Lie to the Senate?

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:


Did Gonzales Lie to the Senate?

New testimony from FBI Director Robert Mueller suggests that the attorney general did not tell Congress the truth about warrantless wiretapping.

Brian Beutler | July 27, 2007 | web only



At a House hearing Thursday, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller provided information that added to a growing body of evidence that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mueller appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the FBI's role in a number of controversial issues, including its use of National Security Letters. During questioning by committee Democrats, Mueller provided revealing testimony about the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, which is at the center of the renewed scrutiny of Gonzales' recent congressional testimony.

The disclosures began about an hour into the hearing, when Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) asked Mueller about his reported discomfort with the NSA's domestic eavesdropping program. "Can you confirm that you had some serious reservations about the warrantless wiretapping program?" he asked. Mueller replied tersely, "Yes."

Two days earlier, Alberto Gonzales had repeatedly insisted to the Senate Judiciary Committee that there had been no conflict within the Justice Department about the NSA program and that all disagreements had been over another, unidentified intelligence program. At one point, Gonzales expressed surprise that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee and receives briefings about programs such as the TSP, would call his account into question.

Mueller was not present at the now-famous March 10, 2004 hospital room meeting between then-Bush legal aide Gonzales, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, acting Attorney General James B. Comey, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was recovering from surgery at the time. But, according to Mueller’s testimony, he "arrived at the hospital after Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card had left" and spoke briefly with the ailing Ashcroft about the his late-night dispute with the White House aides. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=did_gonzales_lie_to_the_senate

[Raven]

1. I may have missed this, but has Ashcroft made any statements

about what happened in his hospital room that night?

[marmar]

2. I don't think so.....

perhaps he fears another trip to the hospital. :scared:

[whistle]

3. Does a bear shit in the woods? If Al's lips are moving, you know he is lying

[tom_paine]

4. At least half a dozen demonstrably proven times

If we lived in a Free Nation, this asshole would already be on trial for crimes so openly performed there is no real dispute, after all he told the lies on public record and often under oath.

[BearSquirrel2]

5. Here is the impeachment

Bush will block the criminal conviction of Gonzalez and THIS will be his undoing. That and the warrantless spying itself. Conyers is the guy who is going to take down President Bush.

[tom_paine]

6. I don't see it, but from your lips to God's Ears

That would be about the best possible scenario for the concept of American Liberty as well as for the American People.

It is as much as I can hope for.