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Comey Implicates Cheney in Wiretapping Reprisal
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t * Report
Thursday 07 June 2007
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in written remarks Wednesday, that Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a top Justice Department lawyer after the official called into question the legality of the White House's secret domestic spying program.
In written responses to detailed questions from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Comey said he "understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment" of Patrick Philbin to deputy solicitor general.
Gonzales, Comey said, decided to pursue another candidate for solicitor general when Cheney threatened to intervene.
Philbin was one of the DOJ officials who reviewed the domestic spy program. His classified analysis about the legality of the program led the Justice Department, in March 2004, to refuse the White House's request to re-certify it on grounds that it appeared to be illegal. Philbin threatened to resign when the White House circumvented the DOJ and reauthorized the spy program over the objections of Comey and then Attorney General John Ashcroft.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060707A.shtml
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t * Report
Thursday 07 June 2007
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in written remarks Wednesday, that Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a top Justice Department lawyer after the official called into question the legality of the White House's secret domestic spying program.
In written responses to detailed questions from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Comey said he "understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment" of Patrick Philbin to deputy solicitor general.
Gonzales, Comey said, decided to pursue another candidate for solicitor general when Cheney threatened to intervene.
Philbin was one of the DOJ officials who reviewed the domestic spy program. His classified analysis about the legality of the program led the Justice Department, in March 2004, to refuse the White House's request to re-certify it on grounds that it appeared to be illegal. Philbin threatened to resign when the White House circumvented the DOJ and reauthorized the spy program over the objections of Comey and then Attorney General John Ashcroft.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060707A.shtml