Gonzales: Don't Blame Me, Blame Bush By Paul Kiel - March 23, 2007, 5:59 PM
President Bush shut down an internal Justice Department investigation into the administration's warrantless wiretapping program against the advice of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to a letter sent by a senior Justice Department official to Congress yesterday. To Democrats, it's yet another example of why Gonzales should step down.
The investigation, launched in January 2006 by the Department's internal watchdog, the Office>http://www.usdoj.gov/opr/polandproc.htm">Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) -- an office created in the wake of the Watergate scandal to prevent similar abuses by DoJ officials -- would have examined whether Department officials had properly reviewed the legality of the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program, which dates back to 2001.
But the probe was shut down when Bush denied investigators the security clearances necessary for the investigation. Such a denial was unprecedented and arbitrary.
New questions were raised about that decision last week when National Journal's Murray Waas reported that Gonzales knew that the investigation might focus on him when he discussed with Bush whether to shut it down. House Democrats pressed Gonzales to respond to the accusations in the piece.
Yesterday, Richard Hertling, the acting Associate Attorney General, responded on Gonzales' behalf:
The Attomey General was not told that he was a subject or target of the OPR investigation, nor did he believe himself to be. The Attorney General did not ask the President to shut down or otherwise impede the OPR investigation. The Attorney General recommended to the President that OPR be granted security clearances to the Terrorist Sur~eillance Program. The President made the decision not to grant the requested security clearances.
Setting aside the complexities of whether Gonzales knew the probe would touch on him or not, let's just take a moment to examine what happened here.
For no apparent reason, Bush shut down an internal DoJ investigation that would have examined his administration's possibly illegal wiretapping program. And the guy who heads up that department, whose job is to uphold the rule of law, objected, but let it happen.
According to Jeff Lieberson, the spokesman for Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), the lawmaker who initially requested the OPR investigation, Gonzales' failure to challenge Bush demonstrates Gonzales' inability to do his job.
"The attorney general demonstrated a failure of leadership by not standing up to Bush," Lieberson told me. "He knew [the investigators] should have gotten security clearances, and he had an obligation to stand up on behalf of his agency.
"He's still acting as if he were still White House counsel instead of the head of law enforcement for the United States.... He's made clear to the president that whatever he wants done, the Justice Department is going to do."
As a result, Lieberson said, Hinchey will soon be joining the chorus of voices calling for Gonzales' resignation.