Statement Of Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary
Committee,
Oversight Hearing With
Attorney General Michael Mukasey
January 30, 2008
Today, we welcome Michael Mukasey back before us for our first
oversight hearing with the new Attorney General. And today we
continue our work to restore the Department of Justice to its vital
role of ensuring the fair and impartial administration of justice.
I first came to the Senate 33 years ago, when the Nation and the
Department of Justice were reeling from Watergate and the trust of
the American people in their government had been shaken. The damage
done over the last seven years to our constitutional democracy and
our civil liberties rivals the worst of those dark days. This
President’s administration has repeatedly ignored the checks and
balances wisely placed on executive power by the Founders, who were
concerned that they not replace the tyranny of George III with an
American king.
Among the most disturbing aspects of these years has been the
complicity of the Justice Department, which has provided cover for
the worst of these practices. Its secret legal memoranda have
sought to define torture down to meaninglessness, sought to excuse
warrantless spying on Americans contrary to our laws and made what
Jack Goldsmith, a conservative former head of the Office of Legal
Counsel, has rightly called a “legal mess” of it all. This President
and this administration have, through signing statements and
self-centeredness, decided that they are above the law and can
unilaterally decide what parts of what laws they will follow. The
costs have been enormous, to our core American ideals, the rule of
law, and the principle that in America, no one – not even a
President – is above the law.
A little more than a year ago, Attorney General Gonzales sat in the
chair now occupied by Attorney General Mukasey as we began our
oversight efforts for the 110th Congress. Over the next nine
months, our efforts revealed a Department of Justice gone awry. The
leadership crisis came more and more into view as Senator Specter
and I led a bipartisan group of concerned Senators to consider the
United States Attorney firing scandal, a confrontation over the
legality of the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program,
the untoward political influence of the White House at the
Department of Justice, and the secret legal memos excusing all
manner of excess.
This crisis of leadership has taken a heavy toll on the tradition of
independence that has long guided the Justice Department and
provided it with safe harbor from political interference. It shook
the confidence of the American people. Through bipartisan efforts
among those from both sides of the aisle who care about federal law
enforcement and the Department of Justice, we joined together to
press for accountability that resulted in a change in leadership at
the Department.
Today we continue the restoration of the Department through our
oversight. I trust that today, Attorney General Mukasey will answer
our questions and speak not as merely the legal representative of
this President, but as the Attorney General for all Americans. I
hope that he avoids the practice all too common in this
administration and the old leadership at the Department of cloaking
misguided policies under a veil of secrecy, leaving Congress, the
courts, and the American people in the dark.
As we begin the final year of the Bush-Cheney administration, we
continue to face more questions and shifting answers on issues
ranging from the destruction of White House emails required by law
to be preserved; to questions about the CIA’s destruction of
videotapes of detainee interrogations not shared with the 9/11
Commission, Congress or the courts; and more demands for immunity
and unaccountability among those in the administration. This White
House continues to stonewall the legitimate needs for information
articulated by this Committee and others in the Congress, and to
contemptuously refuse to appear when summoned by congressional
subpoena.
The Bush-Cheney administration also created the unnecessary impasse
we face today over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by
breaking agreements it reached last summer with Congressional
leaders in order to make cheap political points and ram through the
deeply flawed Protect America Act. Instead of following through on
its commitments and passing a bill that leaders in Congress and the
administration agreed would protect both America’s interests and the
civil rights and liberties of individual Americans, this
administration chose to renege on those agreements to grab sweeping
new powers to spy on Americans without the necessary checks,
balances, or accountability.
Today we will get some indication whether the new Attorney General
will help us restore checks and balances to our government and
recapture American ideals. We will learn whether we have begun a
new chapter at the Department or whether we are just finishing the
last one.
It is not enough to say that waterboarding is not currently
authorized. Torture and illegality have no place in America. We
should not delay beginning the process of restoring America’s role
in the struggle for liberty and human dignity. Tragically, this
administration has so twisted America’s role, law and values that
our own State Department, our military officers and, apparently,
America’s top law enforcement officer, are now instructed by the
White House not to say that waterboarding is torture and illegal.
Never mind that waterboarding has been recognized as torture for the
last 500 years. Never mind that President Teddy Roosevelt properly
prosecuted Americans soldiers for this more than 100 years ago.
Never mind that we prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding
Americans during World War II. Never mind that this is the practice
of repressive regimes around the world. That is not America.
This session I have joined with Senators Kennedy and Specter to
cosponsor legislation to reign in this administration’s abuse of the
“state secrets” defense. I expect that will likewise be raised at
this hearing along with torture, rendition, executive privilege and
other key matters.
This Committee has a special stewardship role to protect our most
cherished rights and liberties as Americans and to make sure that
our fundamental freedoms are preserved for future generations. No
one is more eager than I to see Attorney General Mukasey succeed in
restoring strong leadership and independence to the Department of
Justice. I hope that today we take a step forward to work together
to repair the damage inflicted on our Constitution and civil
liberties during the last seven years.
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