Legal News

DOJ Hands Gonzo More Unwelcome News Over Classifed Docs

By Ashby Jones

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales got yet another does of unwelcome news yesterday — though it certainly wasn’t the worst he’s gotten in the past couple of years.

According to a report written by the Department of Justice’s inspector general, Glenn Fine, Gonzaels mishandled highly classified information relating to the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and the administration’s prisoner interrogation program. According to the WaPo, no charges, will be brought against Gonzales. (The NYT calls the episode “a new embarrassment to the long list of problems that tainted his tenure as attorney general.”)

Gonzales reportedly improperly handled notes of an emergency meeting at the White House in March of 2004 regarding the wiretapping program by taking them home with him “for an indeterminate amount of time.” The IG’s office also found that Gonzales had mishandled other documents by storing them in his office safe.

George Terwilliger, a lawyer for Gonzales, told the NYT that his client acknowledged responsibility for not properly securing the materials, but denied that “he handled such materials with conscious disregard” for proper procedures.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).