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Politics

: The Gavel

Judiciary Hearing With AG Mukasey

By Jesse Lee

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At 11:00 the Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing of the Department of Justice. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will testify. See a sampling of the issues Chairman John Conyers has raised with AG Mukasey over the past several months in the Gavel archives.

Watch the hearing live >>

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.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).