Potentially bad news for Alberto Gonzales:
The Justice Department’s inspector general indicated yesterday that he is investigating whether departing Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales gave false or misleading testimony to Congress, including whether he lied under oath about warrantless surveillance and the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
The disclosure by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in a letter to Congress signals an expansion of the department’s internal investigations into Gonzales’s troubled tenure, probes that were not previously known to be focused so sharply on the attorney general and his testimony.
I know that quite some readers of this blog might disagree with me on this, but I consider this investigation to be well deserved. The question whether he lied under oath is fairly easy to answer; of course he did. An example? Whenever Gonzales said “I can’t recall” he lied. Of course he could recall. The only problem is it difficult (read: virtually impossible) to prove that someone does remember something that person says not to remember. But we all know he lied, and he knows we all know it. He was not concerned about it though, since he knew (knows) that we cannot prove it. When, however, the inspector general can prove that Gonzales lied about other things (about subject he actually said something different than “I can’t recall”), it is time for the latter to start worrying (and for Bush as well).
Gonzales was one of the worst attorney generals in modern history. The question now is whether the inspector general can prove that he lied about certain things as well. We will see where it goes, but if I were American I would be happy that some people want to restore honesty and accountability.