Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ credibility for truth-telling hit a new low yesterday when FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that warrantless wiretapping was a hotly disputed issue within the Bush administration when John Ashcroft was U.S. Attorney and Gonzales was White House Counsel.

The revelation came when Mueller testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee about warrantless wiretapping and President Bush’s Terrorist Surveillance Program run through the National Security Agency.

The disclosure of then White House Counsel Gonzales’ late-night dash to the hospital room where former Attorney General John Ashcroft was gravely ill with a pancreatitis attack, with Deputy A.G. James Comey was at his bedside.

According to Comey’s testimony, Gonzales tried to make an end-run around a highly debated program. Without disclosing sensitive details of the program, it was subsequently revealed that the Justice Department had already concluded that warrantless wiretapping under President Bush’s program was unconstitutional.

Mueller’s confirmation that warrantless wiretapping was hotly debated is at odds with Gonzales’ current and prior testimony before Congress. It clearly looks like Gonzales lied about the controversy and took a chance that he wouldn’t get caught. Will he face any consequences? That’s the real question.

Unfortunately, the response was predictable.

The subpoenas that the Senate Judiciary Committee served on the White House, Dick Cheney, National Security Council, and Dept. of Justice were rejected by the White House within less than twenty-four hours.

The Committee’s latest subpoenas were preceded by similar subpoenas that it served on former White House and Justice Department officials:

* A subpoena was issued by the Committee on June 13, 2007 to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers over the U.S. Attorney firings debacle. Miers was givien a July 12, 2007 deadline to comply with the subpoena.

* The Committee served a subpoena on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on May 2, 2007 when he failed to comply with its repeated requests for turning over correspondence (e-mail, etc.) involving White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and his use of non-White House e-mail to conduct goverment business.

The latest legal battle stems from the revelation by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey that Gonzales tried (unsuccessfully) to ram-rod a very ill Attorney General John Ashcroft into extending warrantless domestic surveillance just after Justice Department officials had concluded that it was unconstitutional.

Youc an re-examine Comey’s testimony here:

In the old days, having a “party line” meant that telephone customers shared the same network line for their calls. If someone picked up the phone when you were on a call with someone else, they could ‘join the party’ by eavesdropping in on your most intimate details, or joining the conversation.

Today, when somebody listens in on your phone call, there’s a whole new legal meaning associated with it. Now, unless the government has a warrant, it can’t eavesdrop on your phone calls.

At least that was the case until Sept. 11th came along.

Then President George W. Bush decided that it was O.K. to have a “terrorist surveillance program” to listen to conversations and open e-mails without first getting a judge to authorize a warrant.

When he was White House Counsel, Gonzales believed that this was a necessary legal Texas two-step dance around the Fourth Amendment and Supreme Court case law on searches and seizure.

Despite years of requests for more information about the program, the White House, Dick Cheney, and Department of Justice Lawyers haven’t been forthcoming about the legal rationale and due process considerations behind the decision to use warrantless wiretaps inside the U.S.

Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded that its time to set things straight by issuing subpoenas for the DOJ, the White House, Cheney, and the National Security Council for documents about the surveillance program. Documents produced in response to the subpoenas are due on July 18, 2007.

This is bound it end up in federal court.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding and the lawyers working for him might have to make other plans this Jully 4th — their clients just got served with subpoenas demanding the production of documents and information about President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping and electronic surveillance program.

Dick Cheney received a subpoena.

An all-encompassing subpoena was served on the White house.

The National Security Council and Dept. of Justice received subpoenas.

And finally, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales got a nice letter from Chairman Leahy.