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Gorelick Rejected Attempt to Revise âWallâ Memo
(CNSNews.com) - One of Americaâs most prominent federal prosecutors sought changes to the 1995 "wall" memo authored by then-Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, but most of the concerns expressed by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White over the barriers erected between criminal and counter-intelligence investigations were rejected. According to documents obtained by CNSNews.com, White, who was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, spelled out her concerns shortly after Gorelick wrote the memo establishing the new guidelines for federal investigations. The reply that followed came from Michael Vatis, deputy director of the Executive Office of National Security, with Gorelick signing off on Vatisâ language.White was concerned that Gorelickâs new guidelines for investigations had made it too complicated for the FBI to contact the U.S. attorneyâs office and launch a probe of suspicious activity. White suggested that only the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Department of Justice needed to approve such an investigation, and not the departmentâs criminal division. However, the Vatis/Gorelick memo offered a blunt reply. "I recommend rejecting this change," the June 19, 1995 document stated. "[A] USAO (U.S. attorneyâs office) should not be notified of a national security investigation -- particularly one that has not yet developed into a criminal case -- without the approval of the AAG (assistant attorney general), Criminal Division." The Vatis/Gorelick memo also addressed Whiteâs reservations over how the new investigative guidelines would impact a probe under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). White contended that once the Justice Departmentâs Criminal Division had decided that criminal law enforcement concerns existed in a FISA investigation, the appropriate U.S. attorney should be contacted. Vatis rejected this notion as well. "Notifying the USAO as soon as law enforcement concerns exist -- but before Crim. thinks that the investigation should âgo criminalâ -- is simply too early," the document stated. The June 19, 1995 memo from Vatis/Gorelick was included in a batch of documents released Wednesday by the Justice Department in response to a request by U.S. Senators John Cornyn, (R-Texas) and Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.). The senators, in a joint statement, asked the department to "provide key Gorelick documents" in response to the September 11 Commissionâs "failure to hear testimony from a key Clinton administration Justice Department official (Gorelick), preventing the Congress from receiving a full accounting of intelligence and enforcement procedures that led to the tragic attacks." A separate statement, released by Cornynâs office late Wednesday, charged that the newly released documents "substantially discredit former Deputy Attorney General -- and current 9/11 Commission member -- Jamie Gorelickâs claims of limited involvement in the promulgation of âthe wallâ separating counterintelligence and law enforcement agencies. "Specifically, the documents show that she was substantially involved in the development of the information-sharing policy and contradicts statements that the departmentâs policies under the Clinton-Reno administration enhanced, rather than restricted, such vital information sharing," Cornyn stated. "These documents show what Iâve said all along: Commissioner Gorelick has special knowledge of the facts and circumstances leading up to the erection and buttressing of âthat wallâ that, before the enactment of the Patriot Act, was the primary obstacle to the sharing of communications between law enforcement and intelligence agencies," Cornynâs statement continued.
Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-04-30 |
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