Obstruction of justice, anyone?
In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that Bush "personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails..."
According to
AP, the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility claimed that it
"could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the program...".
Specter found this puzzling:
"It was highly classified, very important and many other lawyers had access. Why not OPR?"
To which Gonzales replied:
"The president of the United States makes the decision."
Now, it seems to me that the last time it came to light that a President had specifially instructed Justice to "back off" an investigation, a bunch of Republicans went to jail and one of them resigned from the Oval Office.
As we know, Count 4 of Article 1 of the impeachment of Richard Nixon accuses the President of:
Interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States...
Not that we've got the Congress to do anything about it but, as we know from watching Henry Waxman over the past five years, information of this sort must be compiled for the day when it can be used against this President.
For a staggering overview of the number of parallels between Nixon's impeachment and the crimes of which Bush is guilty, check out this Kos diary from April and scan for the bold passages.
Add this OPR obstruction to the list, I suppose.
GO HERE to see VIDEO of Gonzales' testimony. (YouTube via RawStory)