Gonzales changes story on DoJ-White House briefings
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 11:36:43 AM EST
Somewhat lost in all the last-minute pre-recess wrangling in the House and Senate this weekend was a letter Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent to Congress "clarifying" his July 24 testimony.
In his testimony on that date, Gonzales told Senators that he was not aware of any instances in which senior Justice Department officials had participated in White House political briefings of the sort that have already been deemed illegal.
It appears, unsurprisingly, that Mr. Gonzales was mistaken.
In his letter in Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales included a list of at least a dozen political briefings. Karl Rove himself presented at some meeetings, which were attended by the likes of Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson.
The Justice Department and White House are saying that there was nothing improper about these particular briefings, as they were simple informational sessions. But given what we know about the content of other briefings, including one in which General Services Administration employees were asked to think about ways to help "our candidates," it's a little difficult to take these assurances on faith.
And here's another question. The Washington Post article states that this list of briefings was given to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, back in June, but wasn't made public until now. But why, then, did Gonzales deny that DoJ officials had attended briefings in his July 24 Senate testimony, when as much had already been admitted to the House? I just don't get it.
Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Ethics in Government, Justice Department, White House, Hatch Act, Karl Rove (all tags)
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