Mukasey to Leahy, Specter: No

Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) sent Attorney General Michael Mukasey a detailed list of questions about the Justice Department’s knowledge of the CIA’s torture tapes’ destruction. What did DoJ officials know about the tapes while they existed? When did they learn they were to be destroyed? What communications did they have with the White House about it?

They were also eager to learn the details of the Justice Department’s joint investigation with the CIA.

Today, Mukasey gave his reply: no. The Department “has a long-standing policy of declining to provide non-public information about pending matters,” he wrote, in order to avoid “any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence. Accordingly, I will not at this time provide further information in response to your letter, but appreciate the Committee’s interests in this matter.” You can read that letter here.

In a statement, Leahy responded that he was “disappointed” by Mukasey’s reply (see below) and promised that he’d ask Mukasey about the tapes at the committee’s first oversight hearing, which he said would be in the new year.

Apparently Mukasey sent similar letters today to a number of other Democratic lawmakers who’d asked about the tapes, in a move that The Washington Post calls a “sharp rebuff.” It is at least a contrast to Alberto Gonzales, who would ignore Congressional letters and requests for months before refusing to provide information.

Leahy’s statement is below.

“I am disappointed that the Department of Justice declined to provide us, either publicly or in a classified setting, with any of the information Senator Specter and I have requested. The Judiciary Committee has an important role in the oversight of the Department of Justice. Oversight fosters accountability. This Committee needs to fully understand whether the government used cruel interrogation techniques and torture, contrary to our basic values.

“I will ask Attorney General Mukasey — in public and on the record — more about the Department’s knowledge of and role in the existence and destruction of these videotapes at the Committee’s next oversight hearing, which I intend to call early next year. The Committee will also look forward to hearing from Deputy Attorney General nominee Mark Filip about this matter at his confirmation hearing on December 19.”