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White House Defends Gonzales Testimony NewsMax.com Wires WASHINGTON -- The White House defended Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday against accusations he gave misleading testimony to Congress. A key Republican senator critical of Gonzales said there was no sign that President Bush's support for the attorney general was weakening. Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accompanied Bush on an Air Force One on a trip to Philadelphia. At a hearing on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Republican had told Gonzales, "I do not find your testimony credible, candidly." The senator Thursday that Bush was sticking by Gonzales out of personal loyalty, despite the attorney general's deteriorating support on Capitol Hill. "The hearing two days ago was devastating (for Gonzales). But so was the hearing before that and so was the hearing before that," Specter said. Gonzales faces new questions about his credibility because of apparent contradictions between his sworn Senate testimony and an intelligence official's statements. As a result, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has threatened to request a perjury investigation of Gonzales. The issue is what was discussed at a March 10, 2004, congressional briefing. A letter from then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said the briefing concerned the administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration. But Gonzales, at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, repeatedly testified that the issue at hand was not about the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on suspects in the United States without receiving prior court approval. Instead, Gonzales said, the emergency meetings on March 10, 2004, focused on an intelligence program that he would not describe. Story Continues Below
White House press secretary Tony Snow defended Gonzales on Thursday but would not talk about the subject of the 2004 briefing. "Unfortunately we get into areas that you cannot discuss openly," Snow said. "It's a very complex issue. But the attorney general was speaking consistently. The president supports him. I think at some point this is going to be something where members are going to have to go behind closed doors and have a fuller discussion of the issues. But I can't go any further than that." Specter, talking with reporters on Bush's plane, took issue with White House decisions surrounding the declaration of executive privilege to prevent top Bush aides from testifying about the firings of U.S. attorneys. A House committee voted this week to hold Bush's chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, and former counsel Harriet Miers, in contempt for refusing to testify. Specter said he was incredulous that the administration would not allow the U.S. attorney to prosecute a contempt citation. He said that means the president is claiming sole authority to determine when executive privilege applies. "That cannot stand up in a constitutional democracy," the senator said. He said Congress at this point has several options:
"I would still like to see it worked out," Specter said. He said Bush is right to fight hard for the institutional power of the executive branch, and that every branch must do this or see its powers erode. But executive privilege is "always a judgment call," Specter added, and never absolute. He said that the other branches of government must be able to have checks on them when it applies.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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