Senate Judiciary Pressures WH for Torture DocumentsSenate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) crossed the aisle once again to issue a renewed demand for documents on detainee interrogation policies from the White House today.
The letter (pdf) to White House Counsel Fred Fielding gives an August 29 deadline to turn over requested documentation, though it does not go so far as to say what the action the Committee will take if its requests are not met.
“I have been stonewalled even in my repeated request for something as simple as an index of OLC opinions,” writes Chairman Leahy in the letter co-signed by Specter. “Examining the role of this Justice Department office in authorizing controversial activities is squarely within the oversight responsibilities of this Committee; in carrying out that responsibility we are entitled, at the very least, to know the subjects on which OLC has provided final legal advice. That after more than five years this Committee has been refused even this simple request is unacceptable.”