Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) appeared on CNN today to say that he still hadn’t gotten the information he wants about Alberto Gonzales’ testimony on the NSA surveillance program. Therefore, he said, he’s still unprepared to say whether he thinks Gonzales lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
Specter met with director of national intelligence Michael McConnell yesterday, and as a follow-up, McConnell sent a letter to Specter today explaining what Gonzales was talking about. That letter hasn’t yet been publicly released, but CNN reported that the letter covers more of the same ground addressed in prior statements from administration figures. McConnell writes that “a number” of surveillance activities were “authorized in one order” and that “one particular aspect of these activities and nothing more, was publicly acknowledged by the President and described in December 2005.” For background on this, see our post explaining this parsing from last week.
Specter said that he needs more than McConnell’s letter to decide whether Gonzales lied or not — he’s been promised an additional letter from Gonzales explaining his testimony. That letter (expected at noon today) is still forthcoming:
Wolf Blitzer: Does this clarify on behalf on Alberto Gonzales that he didn’t lie?
Specter: I’m not prepared to say until we get Attorney General Gonzales’ letter. I was promised this letter from Admiral McConnell and a letter from Attorney General Gonzales at noon. This one came at mid-afternoon and I’ve been asked not to comment on it until we have the Gonzales letter. But the Gonzales letter will, in effect, interpret this letter….
There is a question that has been raised about what is in McConnell’s letter and AG Gonzales is on the verge of giving the information to at least give his side of it.
