Here’s something else you never would have heard from Alberto Gonzales.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) quizzed Mukasey about one specific assertion of executive privilege by the White House in the U.S. attorney firings probe — namely their claim that correspondence with people outside the White House were covered by privilege and should not be turned over to Congress. The case Schumer mentioned referred to an email from the chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party to the White House about New Mexico’s U.S. attorney, David Iglesias.
After a preamble about how he could see certain circumstances where outside communication might be covered by privilege, Mukasey told Schumer that he’d read the letter from the White House counsel’s office claiming privilege for such communications. “I will admit to you that my first reaction to that section of the letter was, ‘Huh?'” But he added that he’d like “to take a closer look at the facts” before that was his final reaction.
