The Associated Press
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said Sunday that finding out whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise misled Congress will help senators pick a worthy successor.
Leahy, D-Vt., has asked Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to look into whether Gonzales gave inaccurate testimony about the firings of several U.S. attorneys last year.
“I am very pleased that it’s being done, because I think that we should have the answers, and I have a great deal of confidence in the inspector general,” Leahy said. “I have told the White House there’s a lot of information we need to have before a confirmation hearing.”
Leahy said that senators need to know what sort of advice Gonzales gave President Bush to help them ask whether the next prospective attorney general would be different.
“I want to know what some of those areas – what the advice was, so we can ask somebody coming in – both Republicans and Democrats can ask somebody coming in, ‘Will you give the same kind of advice? How do you feel about this torture memo? How do you feel about the warrantless wiretapping of Americans?’,” said Leahy.