Judiciary Hearing With AG Mukasey
Chairman John Conyers questions AG Mukasey on waterboarding and torture:
| Chairman Conyers: "Well are you ready to start a criminal investigation into whether this confirmed use of waterboarding by United States agents was illegal?" AG Mukasey: "That's a direct question, I will give a direct answer. No I am not, for this reason: whatever was done as part of the CIA program at the time that it was done was the subject of a Department of Justice opinion through the Office of Legal Counsel and was found to be permissable under the law as it existed then. For me to use the occasion of the disclosure that that technique was once part of the CIA program, an authorized part of the CIA program, would be for me to tell anybody who relied on a Justice Department opinion that not only may they no longer rely on that Justice Department opinion, but that they now will be subject to criminal prosecution having done so." |
Chairman Jerrold Nadler of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties questions AG Mukasey on FISA:
| Chairman Nadler: "Given the extraordinary circumstances involved, allegations of criminal conduct by the President and other high-ranking officials, and possibility of conflict of interests at the Justice Department, will you now agree to appoint outside special counsel so we can finally get an answer to this question?" AG Mukasey: "The direct answer to your question is that I will not." |
Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-29) questions AG Mukasey on his responsibility to investigate:
| Rep. Schiff: "Shouldn't it be the job of the Attorney General to investigate whether the law has been violated, notwithstanding whether there is an opinion by a lawyer at the DOJ that believes otherwise? Shouldn't it be the responsibility of the Attorney General to investigate whether the law has been broken - and if the law has been broken, then to come before the American people and say "the law was broken, people were tortured in violation of the law, we have curtailed that practice and I am recommending either A) that those responsible be prosecuted, or B) that those responsible not be prosecuted because they acted in good faith reliance on an opinion, or that they be prosecuted and the President consider the power of a pardon"? But to abdicate, in my view, to say that because of an opinion of legal counsel that we don't need to investigate whether the law was broken, seems to me a belittling of your responsibility as Attorney General, and I wish you would comment on that." |