The Senate Judiciary Committee will review Alberto Gonzales’ past statements to determine whether Gonzales lied to the committee in 2006 by saying there had been no internal Justice Department dissent over the legality of the president’s Terrorist Surveillance Program (otherwise known as the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program). When confronted by the senators, Gonzales today offered a surprising explanation of his consistency and veracity: he repeatedly suggested there’s a different intelligence program, other than the TSP, that Justice Department officials found legally dubious in 2004. If Gonzales is telling the truth, he just disclosed the existence of a previously unknown intelligence program. If not, the embattled attorney general could be in some serious legal jeopardy.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=180302