Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admitted on Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation into the administration's domestic eavesdropping program. The controversial program includes having the government intercept international phone calls and e-mails made by Americans.
Mr. Bush refused to give security clearance to Justice Department investigators who were trying to determine the role department lawyers played in drafting the program which uses the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without a search warrant as spelled out in the 1978 FISA Act.
Since the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) had no access to the program, it closed its investigation in April.
'It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access. Why not OPR?' Sen. Arlen Specter, (R-Pa.), the committee chairman, asked Gonzales.
'The president of the United States makes the decision,' Gonzales answered.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said that the president blocked the investigation was that he didn't consider it the 'proper venue.'
'What he was saying is that in the case of a highly classified program, you need to keep the number of people exposed to it tight for reasons of national security, and that's what he did,' Snow claimed.
Marshall Jarrett, the chief of OPR said that 'a large team' of FBI agents were given clearance to pursue the leaks that resulted in the program being divulged by the press. Jarrett implied that this showed a double standard on the part of the White House.
Many constitutional experts believe that Bush overstepped his authority when he unilaterally introduced the domestic spying program without court approval. A group of 13 prominent legal experts wrote to lawmakers last week indicating that the recent Supreme Court decision declaring military commissions at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to be unconstitutional also suggest the domestic eavesdropping program may be illegal.
Representative Maurice Hinchey, (D-NY) said he and other members of Congress would write a letter to the president requesting that the Justice Department probe be allowed to take place.
'We can't have a president acting in a dictatorial fashion,' Hinchey explained.
Gonzales continued to insist that as president, Mr. Bush 'has the inherent authority under the Constitution to engage in electronic surveillance without a warrant.'
It remains to be seen what the courts would decide on the matter.
