The Washington Post reports today that the Justice Department's Inspector General found that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales failed to take adequate precautions when handling classified documents related to various surveillance programs.
At issue are notes that Gonzales took during a March 2004 meeting between President Bush and congressional leaders in the White House Situation Room, as a program that allowed authorities to secretly monitor communications for evidence of terrorist plots was set to expire.
When Gonzales, then White House counsel, moved to become the Justice Department's top official in early 2005, he failed to secure the notes in a sensitive compartmentalized facility, the inspector general has concluded. Gonzales kept the notes in a safe in his office and at times took them to and from work in a briefcase -- practices that violated protocols for the handling of classified materials, according to people familiar with the report.
In a memo to the inspector general, Gonzales's advisers characterized the episode as an unintentional mistake and a technical violation of the rules.
Officials in the Justice Department's national security division looked at the inspector general's report but did not find a case to prosecute, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.
There's the problem. If he has just smuggled them out in his socks, everything would have been fine - right, libs?
Berger, Gonzales . . .
With all those claified documents floating around, I'm amazed that the International Zionist Conspiracy hasn't been outed yet.
Gonzales will get a report that gets buried and MAYBE comes out when he gets appointed judge. Heck, Clinton's guy stole classifed docs, got caught, and got a vague slap on the wrist.
As far as improper classification - 90% of the classified documents I saw shouldn't have been classified - it was a joke. Well, a joke and a way around FOIA.
And the President and Vice President can legally declassify classified information (say, the identity of a covert agent) whereas newspaper reporters cannot. And, oh, wait, the manager at a convenience store can take money out of the store safe and a new hire just off the street can't. I'm sure you think that's terribly unfair, too.
Rank has its privileges.
@MadtheSwine: Gonzales doesn't have the power to declassify documents. And he certainly doesn't have the power to ignore established procedures. This is a government of laws.
From where does the Vice President derive his power to declassify?
I mean, it's not like he leaked the information to the New York Times or anything.
So let's see- this is either the worst violation ever, or no big deal, depending on whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. Oh, and Sandy Berger. Heck, throw in Wen Ho Lee while you're at it.
Does reality have a partisan bias, now?
Gonzales's house in northern Virginia is inside the Department of Justice?
Try some reading comprehension, doc. Did Sandy Burglar go to jail for putting classified documents in his underwear and socks, and sneaking them out? Wasn't Berger's theft of classified documents a lot worse than this minor kerfuffle? [Hint: Sandy Burglar was convicted.]
If Gonzales is ever convicted, wake me.
Actually, since the President and Vice-President are not involved in running covert operations, there are almost no circumstances in which they have a legitimate need to know the identity of a covert agent. In the Plame case, for example, they only obtained that information for the express purpose of abusing it for partisan purposes.
JHA
I'm pretty sure what Berger did was worse.
WAIT a minute, this is the guy that makes the law of the land!
He should be hung out to dry.
If it were you or me, it would be curtains, we would be sentenced for 30 years or life.
Why do these guys get a 'pass' or a slap on the wrist?
Why isn't the public outraged?
Why can YOU get pulled over for a traffic ticket and by the end of the day, you end up being arrested for a felony!
This is reprehensible. He read and SIGNED that he understood procedures.
Who's watching the watchers?
All of the drivel about "unintentional mistakes," etc., would have landed you and & me in jail had we done the same thing.