The domestic spying program authorized by the President and
conducted by the National Security Agency was first reported by
the New York Times
on December 16, 2005. The next day, President Bush admitted
that secret, domestic wiretapping has been conducted without
warrants since late 2001, and that he has issued secret orders
in this regard more than 30 times since then. We now know
that the Administration has secretly spied on Americans without
attempting to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act and that the legal justifications it has offered for doing
so have admittedly "evolved" over time and are patently flimsy.
Sen. Leahy, therefore, has no hesitation in condemning the
President for secretly and systematically violating the law.
On March 31, 2006, the Senate
Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Sen. Russ Feingold's call to
censure the President. This was the Committee's fourth hearing
to consider the President's domestic spying activities. But
while the Committee has now heard from a total of 20 witnesses, only
one had any knowledge of the spying activities beyond what was
reported in the newspapers. That witness was Attorney General
Gonzales, who flatly refused to tell us anything beyond "those facts
the President has publicly confirmed, nothing more."
The Congressional Research
Service provides members of Congress with non-partisan research and
analysis of legislation and issues. It's my goal to make all of
these reports available to the tax payer. You can read more
about my efforts
here.
Until then, I've made the below reports available in PDF form to help
you research this issue further.
Statements, Letters, and Releases of Sen. Patrick Leahy
Concerning the NSA's Domestic Spying Program
click here