Justice Department Investigating Gonzales

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 1:21 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Justice Department said Thursday it is investigating whether resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise misled Congress last month in sworn testimony about the Bush administration's domestic terrorist spying program.

The inquiry, confirmed by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, comes three days after Gonzales abruptly announced he was stepping down despite months of vowing he would remain on the job.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who two weeks ago asked for the inquiry, Fine said his investigators believe they ``will be able to assess most of the issues that you raise in your letter.''

Leahy had also asked Fine to look into whether Gonzales gave inaccurate testimony about the firings of several U.S. attorneys last year.

``You identified five issues and asked that we investigate whether the statements made by the attorney general were intentionally false, misleading, or inappropriate,'' Fine wrote in his four-paragraph response to Leahy in the letter dated Thursday.

``The OIG has ongoing investigations that relate to most of the subjects addressed by the attorney general's testimony that you identified,'' Fine told Leahy.

Spokesmen for Gonzales had no immediate comment.

Senate and House lawmakers have said they will continue congressional investigations of Gonzales' leadership and management at the Justice Department, despite the attorney general's announcement Monday that he has resigned, effective Sept. 17.

Gonzales' resignation came a month after his truthfulness was challenged during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for denying that he tried in 2004, as White House counsel, to push the Justice Department into approving the administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program _ despite concerns that it was illegal.

Gonzales said the March 2004 dispute _ which played out in part at the hospital bedside of a groggy Attorney General John Ashcroft _ focused on ``other intelligence activities.'' Ashcroft was recovering from surgery at the time. Gonzales succeeded him in 2005.

Gonzales' testimony to Congress was contradicted two days later by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, who said the dispute was about the program that then allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on domestic terror suspects without court review.

Leahy, in a statement, said the internal probe ``can help restore independence and accountability, which have been sorely lacking at the Justice Department.''

``These actions have eroded the public's trust and undermined morale within our justice system, from the top ranks to the cop on the beat,'' Leahy said. ``The current attorney general is leaving, but these questions remain.''

Fine and H. Marshall Jarrett, counsel to the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, launched a joint internal Justice review last March into whether the prosecutor firings were politically motivated. That inquiry has since been expanded to examine whether Gonzales inappropriately discussed the ousters in a meeting that his former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, later said made her feel ``uncomfortable.''

It is also looking at allegations that Goodling, and possibly other aides, let politics play a part in hiring career prosecutors _ a violation of federal law. And the investigation will examine hiring practices within the department's Civil Rights division, which critics say has been staffed with prosecutors who have strong political resumes but little civil rights experience.

The investigation is not expected to be finished for several more months, and possibly not until early 2008.