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Leahy warns White House
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the White House today to have all of the documents it requested in its investigation of the president’s terrorist surveillance program ready by August 20 — or else.
The Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas on June 27 and granted an extension on July 18 for documents and testimony related to the program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists and people living in America.
The panel wants to find out what legal justifications the administration used to violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a court warrant to conduct such surveillance.
“Despite my patience and flexibility, you have rejected every proposal, produced none of the responsive documents, provided no basis for any claim of privilege and no accompanying log of withheld documents,” Leahy wrote in a letter to Fred Fielding, the president’s chief lawyer.
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By Leporello
August 9, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this
Yes, another line has been drawn in the sand. I’m looking foreward to the stern rebuke and staunch reaction that will arise after the next deadline passes. Congress has abandoned its oversight function, completly. The unitary executive does what it will, when it will and Congress becomes a very convenient rubber stamp. Untill and unless Congress wakes up and fulfills the function the founding fathers intendid it to do, they are merely a doormat and the Executive will be only too happy to continue wiping his feet on them.