Analysis: Renewed Wiretapping Probe Hints at Backroom Deal on Telco Immunity

Submitted by MacRonin on November 14, 2007 - 11:46am

Analysis: Renewed Wiretapping Probe Hints at Backroom Deal on Telco Immunity: A long-stymied internal Justice Department probe into the government's warrantless wiretapping program restarted this week after nearly a year-and-a-half halt caused by Bush's personal decision to deny the lawyers' clearances'to look into'the secret program's legal backing, according to the Associated Press.

The Office of Professional Responsibility won clearances to investigate if Justice Department lawyers, including former AG John Ashcroft acted improperly in approving the spying on Americans.

The announcement, in a letter to a'Democratic House lawmaker,'comes just days after the Senate narrowly approved'Michael Mukasey'as the attorney general. He replaces Alberto Gonzales, who is already being investigated for his involvement in the wiretapping scandal by the Justice Department's inspector general.

President Bush personally decided to kill the probe, started in January 2006, by denying security clearances to the office, Gonzales told Congress in July 2006. The probe had been requested by Democratic lawmakers -- Reps. Maurice Hinchey of New York, John Lewis of Georgia, Henry Waxman of California, and Lynn Woolsey of California -- shortly after the program was outed by the New York Times in December 2005.

The Office informed Hinchey on Tuesday that it had gotten new clearances.

But why now?

I don't think clearing the way for an internal investigation of top lawyers would be the first move of a new attorney general who is tasked with rejuvenating a dejected agency. While the'National Journal'thinks the renewed investigation'is'Mukasey proving he's not the'White House'house boy that Gonzales was, I don't buy it.

In fact, it smells like some sort of deal in the Senate was struck surrounding Mukasey and telecom immunity.

I'm guessing some key senators - probably Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and possibly Arlen Specter (R-Pennyslvania) - extracted some concessions from the administration for their votes to confirm Mukaskey.

The deal might also have included the Senate Judiciary's planned Thursday vote on whether to interfere with court cases against telecoms that collaborated with the spying. The administration has made it a high priority to win that for its corporate friends. Feinstein aided that effort in the Senate Intelligence committee, and in last week's aborted markup of the same bill in the Judiciary committee, pushed the amnesty provision again, saying that telcos shouldn't be 'held hostage to costly litigation in what is essentially a complaint about administration activities.' (Oddly, as Salon's Glenn Greenwald noticed, Feinstein seems to be plagiarizing the Washington Post's Fred Hiatt.)

I can't see any other reason why Bush would reverse his decision to deny clearances to the OPR, notwithstanding that the scope of the investigation is very limited.

Which is to say, what initially looks bad here for Gonzales/Ashcroft or the original attorneys who approved the end-run around the nation's privacy laws'might actually be a sign the fix is in AT&T and Verizon. It might be a good time to buy some telco stock and short the law firms.

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(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level.)

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