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Leahy Warns Gonzales: Be Prepared
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sent a warning shot today to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: be ready or else.
Leahy informed the attorney general that he needs to have his written statement ready 48 hours before his appearance on April 17 to answer questions about his role in the questionable firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year.
“Please include in your written testimony a full and complete account of the development of the plan to replace United States Attorneys, and all the specifics of your role in connection with that matter,” Leahy wrote.
Gonzales is preparing for the fight of his political life.
He must reverse growing congressional sentiment that he should step down as attorney general following disclosures last week that he was regularly briefed about the dismissal of the prosecutors by his former chief of staff, Kyle D. Sampson.
Reading through the political tea leaves: Gonzales won’t be given much wiggle room or lattitude to defer answers, an honored tradition at most congressional hearings, when the subject doesn’t know the answer.
Leahy shared his displeasure that Gonzales has yet to respond to questions senators had posed at his Jan. 18 appearance before the committee.
“We are approaching three months since the last hearing, yet you and the Department seem to be repeating the practice of not responding in a timely manner,” Leahy wrote. “Instead, if you respond at all, you do so only as a hearing appearance approaches.”
“Although the Committee was informed weeks ago to expect your answers to our questions on a rolling basis, we have yet to receive a single answer,” Leahy wrote.
And Leahy noted that the Justice Department has been sitting on answers that the FBI gave the department for approval four months ago, Leahy said.
“You would not tolerate this kind of response time in a Justice Department investigation where months go by without answers and when those answers are finally provided they are outdated or superseded by events. That is not conducive to effective oversight,” Leahy wrote.
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