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Posted by Laura at August 1, 2007 11:03 PMAttorney General Alberto R. Gonzales offered a narrowly drawn defense of his recent Congressional testimony on Wednesday, saying he had been truthful in denying that there had been serious disagreements within the Bush administration about the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants.
In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Gonzales said a dispute between the Justice Department and the White House in March 2004 involved other N.S.A. surveillance activities, not that domestic eavesdropping program. He said the White House first called the eavesdropping the Terrorist Surveillance Program after it was publicly disclosed in December 2005 and confirmed by President Bush.
The attorney general has been under fire from Congressional Democrats for what they describe as misleading testimony both last week and in 2006, and some lawmakers have threatened him with a perjury investigation.
In his letter on Wednesday, he acknowledged that his testimony might have been confusing to those who did not realize that he was parsing his words so carefully. ...
Mr. Specter, the ranking Republican, delivered a scathing critique of the attorney general’s conduct and the letter, but said it would be very hard to prove he had committed perjury.
“I disagree with him categorically where he says ‘I’ve tried to provide frank answers,’ ” Mr. Specter told reporters. “I don’t think he did try to provide frank answers. When he says he may have created confusion, it was more than confusion, it was misleading. He did not tell the whole truth.”
“His testimony was a cat-and-mouse game with the committee,” the senator added, “and that’s not the way the attorney general of the United States ought to treat the Senate Judiciary Committee.”