WASHINGTON (Monday, Oct. 22) – Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) Monday sent a letter to White House Counsel Fred
Fielding again requesting access to documents relevant to the
Committee’s upcoming consideration of legislation to amend the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The letter renews Judiciary Committee requests that have long gone unmet
for documents relevant to the legal justification of the
Administration’s warrantless electronic surveillance program, termed by
the White House as the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The Judiciary
Committee on June 27 issued subpoenas for documents related to the
program’s legal basis. At the White House’s request, Leahy extended the
deadline for fulfillment of the subpoenas from July 18 to August 20, but
the White House also missed the later deadline. The Administration has
not yet provided documents to the Judiciary Committee, which shares
jurisdiction over the legislation and is expected to consider a bill in
the weeks ahead.
The text of the letter follows.
A
PDF is available.
October 22, 2007
Mr. Fred Fielding
Counsel to the President
Office of the Counsel to the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Mr. Fielding:
Since the existence of the President’s
secret wiretapping program became public in December 2005, the
Judiciary Committee has been seeking information on the legal
justifications for conducting such surveillance outside the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. We have done so through oral and
written requests and by conducting oversight hearings. Former
Attorney General Gonzales was asked about these matters. The lack
of satisfaction with his responses led to further investigations,
including the ongoing probe by the Justice Department’s Inspector
General. In light of the Administration’s failure to respond fully,
the Committee was prepared in November 2006 to consider subpoenas to
telecommunication companies. Those subpoenas were not issued at
that time, however.
After our repeated requests did not
yield the information the Committee requested, the Committee
proceeded in June to authorize subpoenas for documents related to
the legal justification for the Administration’s warrantless
wiretapping program and to serve those subpoenas upon the
Administration.
You have now had more than ample time
to collect and process the relevant documents. Responsive
information to those subpoenas is long overdue. You have made
commitments to provide responsive information over the last several
months and even recently, but no such information has yet been
provided.
Instead, we read that a White House
spokesperson has now conditioned the production of information on
prior Senate agreement to provide retroactive immunity from
liability for communications carriers. That is unacceptable and
would turn the legislative process upside down. If the
Administration wants our support for immunity, it should comply with
the subpoenas, provide the information, and justify its request. As
we have both said, it is wrongheaded to ask Senators to consider
immunity without their being informed about the legal justifications
purportedly excusing the conduct being immunized. Although the two
of us have been briefed on certain aspects of the President’s
program, this cannot substitute for access to the documents and
legal analysis needed to inform the legislative decisions of the
Committee as a whole.
By letter dated October 5, 2007, your
office committed to assembling the documents responsive to our
subpoenas by today’s date. We expect the commitments of your office
to take priority over any White House comments to the media.
Accordingly, we urge your compliance with the Committee subpoenas
and other information requests without further delay. We can
discuss precise arrangements for the production of and access to the
documents, but they should be provided in a manner that permits them
to be reviewed and considered by all Members of the Committee and
appropriate Committee staff.
Sincerely,
PATRICK
LEAHY ARLEN
SPECTER
Chairman
Ranking Member
