Matt Ortega

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller says that the March 2004 emergency meeting did in fact involve the domestic surveillance program disclosed in the December 2005 New York Times article. Director Mueller’s statements contradict sworn testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said Thursday the government’s terrorist surveillance program was the topic of a 2004 hospital room dispute between top Bush administration officials, contradicting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ sworn Senate testimony.

Mueller was not in the hospital room at the time of the dramatic March 10, 2004, confrontation between then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and presidential advisers Andy Card and Gonzales, who was then serving as White House counsel. Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee he arrived shortly after they left, and spoke with the ailing Ashcroft.

“Did you have an understanding that that the conversation was on TSP?” asked Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. TSP stands for terrorist surveillance program.

“I had an understanding the discussion was on a NSA program, yes,” Mueller answered.

Jackson asked again: “We use ‘TSP,’ we use ‘warrantless wiretapping,’ so would I be comfortable in saying that those were the items that were part of the discussion?”

“The discussion was on a national NSA program that has been much discussed, yes,” Mueller responded. [original emphasis from Firedoglake]

The report comes on the heels of calls from Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Gonzales committed perjury and subpoenaed Karl Rove, the top political adviser in the Bush White House alongside Brick Tamland.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-San Francisco, Calif.) blog, The Gavel, has video from the House Judiciary Committee.

(Hat tip: Swopa, Firedoglake)

The Hill reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the top political adviser to President Bush, Karl Rove, for his involvement in the U.S. attorney and Department of Justice politicization scandal.

Read the press release form Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). Audio and video are also available.

For the press conference from CNN of Senators Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) calling for a special prosecutor, check out Crooks & Liars.

(Hat tip: John Aravosis, AMERICAblog)

In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales proved himself, yet again, to be nothing more than a stooge of the Bush administration.

RAW STORY’s Michael Roston reports:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned the Attorney General about the independence of the Justice Department and communications with the White House on pending cases or investigations.

He then pointed to a May 4, 2006 memorandum signed by Gonzales which showed that the Office of the Vice President had been granted parallel privileges with the Executive Office of the President on communicating directly with the Justice Department’s staff on criminal and civil matters.

“What - on earth - business does the Office of the Vice President have in the internal workings of the Department of Justice with respect to criminal investigations, civil investigations, and ongoing matters?” the Senator asked.

Gonzales was stumped, “As a general matter, I would say that’s a good question.” [emphasis added]

Why in the hell did Gonzales sign the memo? He might as well of said, “They put things in front of me and I just sign them. I don’t know. I just work here.”

[Updated]

Reuters reports of an incident where an FBI agent was instructed to “keep quiet” on the firing of one U.S. attorney after speaking to the media. FBI Director Robert Mueller defended it by saying that I do not believe it’s appropriate for our special agents in charge to comment to the media on personnel decisions that are made by the Department of Justice.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), however, did not see eye-to-eye with Mueller:

“I profoundly disagree,” replied Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat, who told the panel of the warning to the agent. “He (the agent) was simply saying that it would affect cases that were ongoing. And I think he’s entitled to his opinion.”

Also, Director Mueller testified, in response to questioning from Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York), that he was not aware of any voter-fraud cases that should have resulted in indictments, a key claim that Republicans cling to for numerous dismissals, including U.S. attorneys John McKay, Western District of Washington, and David Iglesias, New Mexico.

Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, noted that among the shifting reasons given for firing prosecutors was failure to energetically pursue voter-fraud investigations.

Schumer asked Mueller if he was aware of any FBI voter-fraud probe that should have resulted in an indictment but did not.

“Not to my knowledge,” the FBI director replied.

Both federal prosecutors were involved in politically charged cases: McKay angered Republicans in his state when he declined to file any charges of voter fraud following the close 2004 gubernatorial race. The Democratic candidate won the race by a slim margin of 129 votes. Iglesias refused to speed up indictments of high-level Democrats in his state prior to the 2006 midterm elections.

Updated 03/28/07 at 1:49pm: Josh Marshall rounded it up quite nicely:

Back in January, Dan Dzwilewski, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the San Diego field office, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Carol Lam’s dismissal would jeopardize on-going corruption investigations and that “I guarantee politics is involved.”

After his quotes were published, the folks back in DC told him to keep quiet.

Documents released late Friday show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales personally approved the firings of the U.S. attorneys, contradicting previous statements.

The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political firestorm surrounding the firings.

The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in the attorney general’s conference room, was the only time Gonzales met with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.

November 27 falls right into the 18-day gap that the Justice Department called a “lull.” Eleven days ago, Think Progress points out, Gonzales denied any involvement:

I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on … That’s basically what I knew as attorney general. [original emphasis]