Thursday, October 11, 2007

It Ain't Over For Gonzales Yet

Even though ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned from his office last month, his troubles are far from over. Obviously he is smart enough to recognize this and has retained a GOP loyalist attorney by the name of George Terwilliger. George was one of the top lawyers helping Bush during the 2000 vote recount saga down in Florida and was almost selected to replace Gonzo as Attorney General himself, being beat out by Michael Mukasey.

From Newsweek:


The top concern for Gonzales, and now Terwilliger, is the expanding investigation by Glenn Fine, the Justice Department’s fiercely independent inspector general, according to three legal sources familiar with the matter who declined to speak publicly about ongoing investigations. Originally, Fine's internal Justice probe—conducted in conjunction with lawyers from the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility—focused on the mass dismissal of U.S. attorneys late last year. The investigation has since broadened to include, among other matters, charges that Gonzales lied to Congress about the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and the circumstances surrounding his late-night March 10, 2004, visit to the hospital room of then attorney general John Ashcroft. At the same time, Congress is continuing to pursue more documents on harsh CIA interrogation techniques approved by Gonzales.

Fine’s investigators, who received high-level security clearances, have been interviewing key players involved in the now-famous bedside confrontation in Ashcroft's hospital room, according to the legal sources. During the visit that evening, Gonzales, then White House counsel, sought to persuade an ailing and heavily medicated Ashcroft to overrule department lawyers who had refused to sign off on classified surveillance activities ordered by President Bush because of concerns about their legality. A rash of senior Justice Department officials—including then deputy attorney general James Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller—threatened to resign over the incident.


Now that incident is beginning to haunt Alberto in the worst way. Congress and the Attorney General office's own Glenn Fine is hot on his trail. Can GoOPer Terwilliger save Gonzo's ass from the law and the truth? I'm hoping he can't, but we'll see how good his new attorney is....and more importantly how hard the law is going to work to convict him for his crimes against our country.