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Cheney's Office Says It Has
Wiretap Documents
Dan
Eggen
Washington Post
Tuesday Aug 21, 2007
Vice President Cheney's office acknowledged for the first time
yesterday that it has dozens of documents related to the administration's
warrantless surveillance program, but it signaled that it will
resist efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain them.
The disclosure by Cheney's counsel, Shannen W. Coffin, came on
the day that the Senate Judiciary Committee had set as a deadline
for the Bush administration to turn over documents related to
the wiretapping program, which allowed the National Security Agency
to monitor communications between the United States and overseas
without warrants.
White House counsel Fred F. Fielding has also declined to turn
over any documents about the program, telling lawmakers last week
that more time was needed to locate records that might be responsive
to the panel's subpoenas.
(Article continues below)
The committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), said
yesterday that he will pursue contempt proceedings against administration
officials if the documents are not produced.
"When the Senate comes back in the session, I'll bring it
up before the committee," Leahy told reporters yesterday.
"I prefer cooperation to contempt. Right now, there's no
question that they are in contempt of the valid order of the Congress."
Administration spokesman Tony Fratto said in a statement that
Fielding "is seeking to reach an accommodation" with
lawmakers but that responding to the subpoenas will take more
time.
"We have approached these discussions in a positive way
that will not take us down the path of confrontation," Fratto
said.
The dispute over NSA records is the latest in a series of battles
between the Bush administration and Congress this year over access
to witnesses and documents, including those sought in the continuing
investigations by the House and Senate Judiciary committees into
last year's firings of nine U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department.
In that case, the White House has asserted that the documents
and witness testimony sought by Congress would improperly disclose
internal deliberations, and thus are protected by a legal concept
known as executive privilege.
Both Coffin and Fratto indicated that the administration is considering
a similar argument in relation to the NSA program.
Nonetheless, Coffin identified by date a series of memos and
orders that "may be responsive" to the Senate committee's
demands. They include 43 separate authorizations from President
Bush for the program, which had to be renewed approximately every
45 days beginning on Oct. 4, 2001.
The letter also lists dates, from October 2001 through February
2005, for 10 legal memoranda from the Justice Department. Although
Cheney's office has copies of the memos, none of them "was
rendered to the Office of the Vice President," Coffin wrote.
The disclosure of the existence of the documents and their dates
sheds new light on some events surrounding the NSA program, including
a now-famous legal dispute in March 2004. A half-dozen senior
Justice officials threatened to resign if the White House did
not agree to change parts of the program that Justice lawyers
had determined were illegal. Coffin's letter indicates that Bush
signed memos amending the program on March 19 and April 2 of that
year. The details of the dispute have never been revealed publicly.
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