Bush Cronyism in the Attorney General's Office

The NSA domestic spying program needs to be investigated. It was launched without the approval of Congress and without the understanding or approval of the American people. The program is a violation of any number of principles that Americans have held dear no matter what their party is. That Bush has defenders of the NSA spying is only because people have no idea how easy it is to abuse such a program and how far of an overreach it is of government power.

So when the government fails to do its job, people need to be concerned. When the government chooses not to do its job for political reasons, we have a major problem. This is something our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, has trouble understanding. He has forgotten that his job is to uphold the law, not do legal favors for the White House.

Steve Soto of The Left Coaster posted this earlier today (bold emphasis mine):

Last week, we were told the Office of Professional Responsibility inside the Abu Gonzales Justice Department was forced to close an internal investigation into whether or not DOJ officials acted appropriately in authorizing the NSA wire-tapping program, a probe that was promised to Congress back in January. OPR said it closed its probe because they were unable to obtain security clearances presumably from the Director of National Intelligence for DOJ investigators to review NSA material.

We now find out, thanks to Shane Harris and Murray Waas, that in fact it wasn’t John Negroponte who shut down this investigation, because the evidence sought by the investigators was already in DOJ’s possession. It appears that the investigation was shut down by Abu Gonzales himself, who wanted to place the blame on Negroponte rather than shine the light on himself.

Here's more from Shane Harris and Murray Waas of The National Journal:

An internal Justice Department inquiry into whether department officials -- including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- acted properly in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program was stymied because investigators were denied security clearances to do their work. The investigators, however, were only seeking information and documents relating to the National Security Agency's surveillance program that were already in the Justice Department's possession, two senior government officials said in interviews.

It is not clear who denied the OPR investigators the necessary security clearances, but Gonzales has reiterated in recent days that sharing too many details about the surveillance program could diminish its usefulness in locating terrorists.

The investigation was launched in January by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility -- a small ethics watchdog set up in 1975 after department officials were implicated in the Watergate scandal. The OPR investigates allegations of official misconduct by department attorneys, not crimes per se, but it does issue reports and recommend disciplinary action. The current Justice Department inspector general has determined that OPR is the office responsible for investigating the professional actions of the attorney general involving the NSA program.

The only classified information that OPR investigators were seeking about the NSA's eavesdropping program was what had already been given to Ashcroft, Gonzales and other department attorneys in their original approval and advice on the program, the two senior government officials said. And, by nature, OPR's request was limited to documents such as internal Justice Department communications and legal opinions, and didn't extend to secrets that are the sole domain of other agencies, the two officials said.

(snip)

Michael Shaheen, who headed the OPR from its inception until 1997, said that his staff "never, ever was denied a clearance," and that OPR had conducted numerous investigations involving the activities of attorneys general. "No attorney general has ever said no to me," Shaheen said....

Let me repeat the key passage: The only classified information that OPR investigators were seeking about the NSA's eavesdropping program was what had already been given to Ashcroft, Gonzales and other department attorneys in their original approval and advice on the program...

There has never been anything denied to the OPR from the Attorney General's office. Only Alberto Gonzales would physically be able to deny access and it's not clear that he has the legal authority to do so. Nor is it clear why Gonzales, Ashcroft and other attorneys should have clearance and not OPR investigators who have the highest credentials for investigation. To some extent, it's as if the president has said Congress is forbidden from investigating him. That is not what the US Constitution says. Congress wrote the law on OPR and neither Bush nor Gonzales have the authority to override the OPR in the Justice Department.

Alberto Gonzales has repeatedly proved that his loyalty is to George W. Bush, not the law and not the US Constitution. He should step down immediately or at the very least recuse himself from any investigation involving the president and the vice president and his own department.