Obama Pushing For Secret Legal Memos

Legal Times reports that President-elect Barack Obama has been having trouble with one small transition demand -- getting secret legal memos from the Justice Department.

A senior Justice Department official said Tuesday that "99.8 percent" of the department's work with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has gone smoothly. The 0.2 percent snag: The department has reservations about granting the team's request to review classified legal opinions related to secret CIA and National Security Agency programs.

In a roundtable discussion with reporters last week, Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to discuss specific requests made by transition staff regarding opinions issued by the Office of Legal Counsel, the arm of the Justice Department that provides legal advice to the president and all other executive branch agencies.

The Justice official said the dispute over access to the NSA and CIA opinions has made its way up to Williams & Connolly's Gregory Craig, who earlier this month was named to be Obama's White House counsel. Craig was expected to meet with current White House counsel Fred Fielding to discuss the issue, the official said. It's unclear whether such a meeting has already taken place. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice official said the department was reluctant to provide the opinions to Obama's team without permission from the two intelligence agencies whose activities they address. At the roundtable, Mukasey said OLC opinions are issued at the request of other agencies with their "own equity or interest in the information."

...

The opinions, some of which have been released to Congress in redacted form, contain the legal rationale of the NSA's warrantless spying program and the CIA's detention and interrogation policies, among other intelligence initiatives.

In 2003 and 2004, the Bush administration issued secret memos explicitly endorsing CIA use of torture. Dick Cheney's office hid memos approving warrantless wiretapping from the White House chief of staff. A judge has ordered the administration to produce the wiretap memos.

Comments

[MaximMaximus]

01:03 AM on 12/16/2008

Smells like a cover up. The President-elect and his designees are entitled to see classified material by law! Duh!

[SnapShots]

04:24 PM on 12/13/2008

This means they can't even see the memo that says the can't see the memos?

[jsgaetano]

01:00 PM on 12/12/2008

Oh wow... Bush and Cheney and Republicans engaged in a coverup?

I am both shocked and awed. This is unprecedented!

[VikingKing]

12:30 PM on 12/12/2008

People calling for firing squad here? Oh my. Yuri was right.
http://allanerickson.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/what-every-leftist-should-hear/

[SanFranJeff]

12:10 PM on 12/12/2008

Of course they won't turn over the memos!
What memo's?
I don't have any memo's to turn over?
Do you?

This is where the Bush Administration must 'cover up' as much of their own deeds as possible, to avoid being indicted.

I'm still wondering why Bush hasn't been brought before The Hague, and "charged" with war crimes? Sure, he's insulated by his faulty "faulty intelligence" defense related to the initial invasion - but what's insulating him from 'condoning torture' and all of his 'warrant-less wiretapping' of US Citizens?

Honestly, I'm just a commercial banker, who spends my day making working capital and equipment loans to businesses across America and beyond, and I knew, as the drum beat rolled toward Baghdad, that this invasion was a HUGE MISTAKE, how could our LEADERS not know this...?

What has happened to our country? Clinton can be impeached for lying to a grand jury panel and investigators about an illicit affair - yet BUSH can LIE to the entire world, lead us into a Trillion dollar war under false pretenses, violate the Geneva Convention, and condone torture while authorizing warrentless wiring taping ... and he doesn't even get a slap on the wrist?

Man - it sure appears Bush must be holding some juicy photos of someone doing something... He appears to be completely "untouchable" and I don't get why...?

[Harmony1812]

07:40 AM on 12/12/2008

Gosh gollie gee whiz do ya think they're hidin' sumthin?

[mydogshakespeare]

06:40 AM on 12/12/2008

Treasonous B@st@rds! Time for Frog Marches, Trials, and Firing Squads... all Public!

[schatsie]

06:40 AM on 12/12/2008

AND this is EXACTLY WHY OBAMA needs to clean house... that means getting rid of Gates as soon as possible, Gates is there to stall any investigations into the IRAQ WAR FRAUD that is still going on and that is costing our country dearly....

[majorteddy]

01:00 AM on 12/12/2008

The Republicans do NOT want to give up power.They feel they are the rightful guardians of the USA and only they know how to steer the ship right----onto the shoals.

[schatsie]

06:42 AM on 12/12/2008

Pardon me, but don't you mean drive the big semi trucks up to the BANKS and CLEAN OUT THE VAULTS!!! None of these people are going to jail, they are all going to Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands where their money has been stashed...

[majorteddy]

12:58 AM on 12/12/2008

If the President of the United States can't see something, why are we doing it?

[worldview47]

12:50 AM on 12/12/2008

Wouln't it be shocking if there are several indictments once President elect Obama is sworn in?

[Harmony1812]

07:34 AM on 12/12/2008

It would be delicious!

[skibiketrash]

11:51 PM on 12/11/2008

The shredders, just like the printers are working 24/7 in Washington!

[thromulese]

09:53 PM on 12/11/2008

They are in all probability trying to hide crimes.

They never expected it to come to this. I mean they can steal a close election, but not a blow out which is what happened. Now they are in panic mode as they realize that all their crimes will soon be uncovered by the Obama administration.

The poor little torture loving, incompetent, and corrupt constitution haters know what’s coming, and it won’t be pretty-for them.

[Citizenofreality]

08:25 PM on 12/11/2008

Well ain't it interesting that this little problem coincides with the story about the Republicans threatening to make a big stink about Holder's nomination as AG. Hmmmm.

[Loki11467]

08:01 PM on 12/11/2008

Fire them all Obama! Go go my friend! There is a term in these here parts. When it comes to wreckless cowboys you just Obama them!

[PatForObama]

09:37 PM on 12/11/2008

Oh, I like that! I hope he can wield Teddy Roosevelt's big stick re the CIA and FBI and get them to play together, and with him. We're all too divided in too many ways.