Former DOJ Lawyer Couldn't Find Way to Legalize Bush Spying Program

[babylonsister]

Former DOJ Lawyer Couldn't Find Way to Legalize Bush Spying Program
By Ryan Singel EmailOctober 02, 2007 | 10:10:23 AMCategories: NSA

Senator Patrick Leahy (D- Vermont) wasted no time in pushing former administration lawyer Jack Goldsmith about the legality of the warrantless wiretapping program. Goldsmith, who in 2004 revised the opinion giving legal cover to the program, sparked a conflagration between the Justice Department and the White House, which peaked with the Intensive Care Showdown at then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's bedside.

"Is it fair to say in your opinion the warrantless wiretapping program or at least significant parts of it were illegal or without legal basis?" Leahy asked.

"It was a legal mess," Goldsmith said. "It was the biggest legal mess I encountered there."

"I'm worried about what label we attach to programs - I will say there were certain aspects of programs related to the that I could not find legal support for."

That's careful lawyerese for illegal. Especially when that lawyer's job at the time was to find any reasonable basis to support the Administration's work.

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein later asked Goldsmith to describe what happened when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales visited Attorney General John Ashcroft in the intensive care unit after emergency surgery. The duo visited in order to get Ashcroft to sign off on continuing its warrantless wiretapping and surveillance program, which Goldsmith and others in the Justice Department, including FBI director Robert Mueller, wanted limited.

more...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/former-doj-lawy.html

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http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/02/goldsmith-muzzled-by-white-house-on-spy-program/

Goldsmith muzzled by White House on spy program.

In a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, former Bush administration lawyer Jack Goldsmith “said that parts of the President Bush’s controversial eavesdropping program were illegal” and that “the White House has forbidden him from saying anything about the legal analysis underpinning the program.” Goldsmith said that the White House does not want the Terrorist Surveillance Program scrutinized. “There’s no doubt the extreme secrecy not getting feedback from experts, not showing it to experts led to a lot of mistakes,” he said.

[MrCoffee]

1. "...could not find legal support for."

ruh-roh.


just remember though, the gap between no legal support and illegal is huge.

[budibudinski]

2. Now can we Impeach GW? Better yet just fine him about

a trillion dollars for fucking up the world and recoup some of our taxpayer losses.
what a litle prick.

[Missy Vixen]

3. Jack Goldsmith left the White House because he wasn't a

"loyal Bushie". Republican or not, he deserves our respect for standing up for the rule of law.

Julie

[Uncle Joe]

4. Legality schmegality, what do Bush/Cheney care,

the Constitution is only a *&%$#@ piece of paper!