4 Dems Seek Alleged AG Perjury Probe
Updated: Upping the ante in continuing Congressional hearings on issues ranging from the firings of nine U.S. attorneys to American policy on terrorism, four Senate Democrats have formally asked the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate possible perjury by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
“It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements,” the senators wrote in a letter to U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor, reports the International Herald Tribune. The four signers, all of whom are on the judiciary committee, are: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
For example, there was a considerable gulf between Gonzales’ accounts and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III’s testimony about a controversial warrantless surveillance program, reports the Washington Post. Gonzales has downplayed the amount of disagreement about the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program, and said it wasn’t discussed in certain meetings. Mueller, by contrast, testified, as the Post puts it, that the surveillance program “sparked dramatic legal debate within the Bush administration,” and said it was at issue in a controversial visit Gonzales made to the bed of ailing then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Ironically, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.—who himself suggested a similar perjury probe of Gonzales, as discussed in an ABAJournal.com post earlier today—is seeking to slow down the possible perjury investigation at least a bit. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he wants to give Gonzales a week to clarify inconsistencies between his testimony and what others have said occurred during various discussions of different Justice Department issues, according to the Post.
However, Leahy also expanded the ongoing Congressional investigation of alleged political firings of nine U.S. attorneys by issuing subpoenas to White House adviser Karl Rove and one of his aides, demanding their testimony by Aug. 2. “Not since the darkest days of the Nixon Administration,” Leahy said, “have we seen efforts to corrupt federal law enforcement for partisan political gain and such efforts to avoid accountability,” according to Reuters.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking Republican on the judiciary committee, accused Schumer, in particular, among the four signers of the letter to Clement, of political grandstanding. Like Leahy, Specter suggested giving Gonzales a chance to clarify his testimony.
One White House spokesman described Congress as “out of control,” according to ABC News, and another, Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, responded “Give me a break. It’s amazing to me that the Democrats find a way every day to avoid doing the work Americans care about, like education, health care, energy, fiscal discipline, and preventing terrorists from attacking us again.”
(Initially posted at 6:53 p.m.)
