Michael Mukasey

February 5, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- In response to CIA Director Hayden’s admission today that the Administration has used waterboarding on three detainees, Senator Dick Durbin called for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of the Administration’s use of waterboarding.    » read more »

February 5, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy released the following statement in response to the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence threatening a veto of the FISA bill.

“This most recent veto threat by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence reveals the shamelessness of the Administration’s approach to FISA reform.

The President has repeatedly said that Americans lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not make major changes to FISA.    » read more »

05 February 2008 -- The director of the Central Intelligence Agency has confirmed that his agency used the extreme interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three terrorism suspects nearly five years ago. In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, Michael Hayden urged lawmakers not to place restrictions on the interrogation methods available to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Director Hayden's testimony was the most detailed description to date of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques.    » read more »

January 30, 2008 -- "I had hoped today would provide more clarity on so many critical issues. Instead, we heard references to legal opinions, justifications, and facts that remain hidden from Congress and the American people.

It is a hallmark of our democracy that we say publicly what the laws are and what conduct they prohibit. We have seen what happens when hidden decisions rendered in secret memos are withheld from the people’s elected representatives and from the American people. It erodes our civil liberties and undermines our values as a nation of laws.    » read more »

United States Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

January 30, 2008 -- "Attorney General Mukasey, thank you for appearing today. I want to raise two subjects, waterboarding and voting rights.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- [Washington, D.C.] – All ten Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today sent a letter, written by Assistant Majority Leader and Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin (D-IL), to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking that he provide an opinion as to whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal under U.S. law.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy and nine Senate colleagues sent the following letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to clarify his positions on waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.    » read more »

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking the Department of Justice to provide the Committee with information regarding no-bid contracts directed to be awarded to firms affiliated with former Justice Department officials. According to an article in The New York Times, U. S. Attorney Christopher Christie directed the awarding of no-bid contracts to former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s consulting firm, two former U.S.    » read more »

January 8, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy sent the following letter to Attorney General Mukasey, commending his decision to initiate a criminal investigation into the destruction of the CIA interrogation tapes. The letter also urged the Attorney General to investigate the conduct that was depicted on the tapes, as well as their destruction, noting that our laws against torture are every bit as important as our laws against obstruction of justice.

The text of the letter appears below.

January 8, 2008

The Honorable Michael Mukasey    » read more »

December 20, 2007 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) demanded answers from the Justice Department about allegations that department officials delayed a key indictment in the New Hampshire Phone Jamming case to minimize the political impact of the scandal on the 2004 election.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2007 -- The following are prepared remarks of Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey at the American Bar Association National Security Law Breakfast:

Thank you Stewart for that introduction. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. I want to talk to you this morning about the need to put in place--permanently--the national security tools that we use for the war on terror--and in particular, about the need to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or "FISA" as it's commonly called.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- December 18, 2007 -- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today appeared on CNN’s American Morning where he discussed Senator Reid’s decision to delay consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until January. He also addressed Attorney General Mukasey’s refusal to accommodate Senator Specter and Senator Leahy’s request for information regarding the destruction of the CIA tapes.

A transcript of the interview is below:    » read more »

Washington, D.C. -- December 11, 2007 -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) Monday sent a letter to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey asking a series of questions about the Justice Department’s knowledge of and involvement in the Central Intelligence Agency’s possession and subsequent destruction of videotapes showing interrogations of detainees. The Department of Justice has launched an initial investigation into the matter.    » read more »

November 20, 2007 -- Des Moines, IA - Senator and Presidential candidate Chris Dodd today released the following statement in response to the claims of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan that he "unknowingly passed along false information" to the American public and that "the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in [his] doing so," including the Vice-President and the President:    » read more »

November 13, 2007 -- DNC Chairman Howard Dean and DNC Voting Rights Institute Chair Donna Brazile issued the following joint statement after the Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States:

"As Attorney General, Michael Mukasey has a lot of work to do in the months ahead to repair the Justice Department's reputation.

For years, Bush Republicans have politicized the Department of Justice and waged an outright war on the right to vote by promoting restrictive voter ID laws, overzealous and inappropriate voter purging, and voter intimidation tactics.    » read more »