Legal Defense Fund For Torture Memo Author

Zachary Roth | November 19, 2009, 2:35PM

Jay Bybee

One of the authors of the Bush Justice Department's notorious memos approving torture has set up a legal defense fund to help pay anticipated lawyers' fees in connection with the episode.

A website for the Bybee Legal Defense Fund "explains how contributions may be made to help Judge Jay S. Bybee pay costs and expenses he is incurring or may incur in connection with claims, investigations or proceedings relating to his service as Assistant Attorney General for the Office Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice or his service on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit."

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Topics: DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, Eric Holder, George Bush, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Justice Department, Torture

Burrowing

Obama Admin. Cracks Down On Burrowing -- Right Cries Foul

Zachary Roth | November 13, 2009, 12:33PM

In what may be another small dose of that precious change we can believe in, the Obama administration is taking steps to crack down on one of the Bushies' favored tactics for politicizing government: burrowing.

In the waning days of the Bush administration, we told you about some political appointees who had landed career jobs, with civil-service protections, at their departments -- allowing them to continue to exert influence under the new government, and making them difficult to remove. In fact, the Bushies were far from the first group to try this. The Washington Monthly's Charles Peters, who has chronicled the workings of the federal government since the 1960s, used to call it the "headless nail" phenomenon.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Burrowing, George Bush, John Berry

Condi Rice

Rice And Hadley Look Set To Launch Consulting Firm

Zachary Roth | November 11, 2009, 3:18PM

Fmr. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice and Fmr. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley

Two top Bush administration officials whose reputations for strategic acumen were badly damaged by the disasters of the Bush years may be about to market their expertise to private-sector clients.

In September, the RiceHadley Group LLC was registered as a business in California, under a San Francisco address. According to a source, the venture is to be a "strategic consulting" firm, headed by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and will be launched imminently.

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Topics: Condi Rice, George Bush, Hoover Institution, Stephen Hadley

Bernard Kerik

Kerik Faces Prison Time After Guilty Plea For Lying To Bush White House

Justin Elliott | November 5, 2009, 11:42AM

Fmr. NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik

Former NYC police commissioner and Rudy Giuliani crony Bernie Kerik today pleaded guilty to lying during his vetting to become George W. Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security. It was the first of eight expected pleas, in exchange for which prosecutors will suggest 27 to 33 months in prison, the AP reports.

The pleas by Kerik, who has been in prison since Oct. 20 when a judge revoked his bail for giving out sealed information, are designed to resolve three separate criminal cases.

In the White House case, Kerik was accused of falsely denying to Bush vetters that he had an improper relationship with city contractors who performed pricey renovations on Kerik's Bronx apartment.

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Topics: Bernard Kerik, Bush Administration, George Bush, Homeland Security, Rudy Giuliani

Dick Cheney

Don't Even Point! Cheney's Extreme View Of Presidential Privilege

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2009, 6:35PM

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

It's not news that Dick Cheney takes an expansive view of executive privilege. But one passage from the just released Plame interview documents makes clear just how far he took it.

When asked if he ever advised Libby that the president had decided to declassify the NIE, the vice president declined to answer in view of his concerns about sharing potentially privileged conversations between himself and the President. it was clarified for the Vice President that he was not being asked to comment on the substance of his conversations with the President, but rather, only whether he'd ever told Libby that he'd had such a discussion with the President. In response, Vice President Cheney repeated his assertion that he must refrain from commenting to the investigators about any private and/or privileged conversations he may have had with the President.

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Topics: Dick Cheney, George Bush, Scooter Libby

U.S. Attorneys

US Attorney's "Convenience Store Initiative" Probed Middle Easterners For Terror Ties

Zachary Roth | September 29, 2009, 3:35PM

In the period after 9/11, law-enforcement agencies around the country suddenly made rooting out anyone with possible ties to terrorism a top priority. But did one Bush appointee take that zeal too far by targeting people based on little more than an Arabic-sounding name?

The Convenience Store Initiative was the farcical-sounding name of a program launched by the office of Jim Greenlee, the US attorney for Mississippi's northern district, according to documents obtained by the state's Clarion-Ledger newspaper.

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Topics: FBI, George Bush, Jim Greenlee, Justice Department, U.S. Attorneys

Barack Obama

ACLU And Nadler: New State Secrets Policy Falls Short

Zachary Roth | September 23, 2009, 1:03PM

Civil libertarians are criticizing the Obama administration's new policy limiting the government's ability to claim state secrets, saying it doesn't go nearly far enough in reversing the expansion of executive power.

Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the ACLU, told TPMmuckraker that the new Justice Department policy, announced this morning in a memo by Attorney General Eric Holder, "falls far short" of what's needed.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Eric Holder, George Bush, Jerrold Nadler, Justice Department, Wiretapping

Barack Obama

Obama Admin. Announces New Policy On State Secrets

Zachary Roth | September 23, 2009, 12:03PM

Over the last few months, we've given voice to concerns that the Obama administration has been mimicking its predecessor in its approach to executive power and the war on terror -- in particular by invoking the states secrets privilege in seeking to hide information relating to national security tactics.

But today brings news that may represent a sharp break with the Bushies' failed policy on that issue. In a memo signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department has announced new limits on the government's ability to assert the privilege. (You can read the memo here.)

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Topics: Barack Obama, Eric Holder, George Bush, Justice Department, State Secrets, Wiretapping

Justice Department

Justice To Probe Decision To Drop "New Black Panther" Voter Intimidation Case

Zachary Roth | September 10, 2009, 2:49PM

The Justice Department's internal ethics unit has opened an investigation into the decision to drop a voter intimidation complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party, the Washington Times reported yesterday.

In a letter sent late last month, Mary Patrice Brown, who runs DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility, told Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) that OPR had "initiated an inquiry into the matter."

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Topics: Barack Obama, DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility, George Bush, John McCain, Justice Department, Racism, Voting

Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo: My Time As AG Hurt My Reputation

Justin Elliott | August 10, 2009, 10:25AM

The Alberto Gonzales self-rehabilitation tour continues?

The former Attorney General, who launched a mini media blitz in May, is back, this time trying his hand with New York Times magazine interviewer Deborah Solomon.

Among other tidbits, Gonzo says he hasn't talked to George W. Bush since the president left office. And he confirms that no law firm has offered him a job in the years since he resigned. (Though his lawyer told TPMmuckraker in May he was engaged in unspecified "legal work.")

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush

U.S. Attorneys

U.S. Attorney Fired Under Bush To Get Old Job Back

Zachary Roth | July 31, 2009, 4:27PM

What better way to demonstrate a change from the bad old days of the politicized Justice Department than to appoint as US attorney one of the people who was fired from that job as part of the Bushies' purge?

The White House has announced that Daniel Bogden, who in late 2006 was fired by the Bush administration as U.S. attorney for the district of Nevada, has been re-nominated for that position.

"I'm extremely honored that President Obama has nominated me," Bogden told TPMmuckraker in a brief phone interview. "I appreciate the opportunity and I'm looking forward to my return to public service. and I certainly appreciate Senate Majority Leader Reid's recommending me for the position."

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Topics: George Bush, Kyle Sampson, U.S. Attorneys

Karl Rove

Emails Show Rove's Role In U.S. Attorney Firings

Zachary Roth | July 30, 2009, 3:14PM

Karl Rove did his second and final day of testimony before Congress about his role in the U.S. attorney firings today. And we're getting more confirmation that that role was more extensive than he's yet let on.

The Washington Post and New York Times have obtained emails that offer glimpses into Rove's role in the firing of certain of the U.S. attorneys. They jibe closely with many similar emails that were released last year as part of a Justice Department inspector general report which essentially found that the firings were engineered by Rove and other White House officials.

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Topics: DOJ Office Of The Inspector General, George Bush, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys

Barack Obama

Yet More Obama Secrecy: Won't Release Info On Visits From Health-Care Execs

Zachary Roth | July 22, 2009, 10:06AM

And the beat goes on....

Here's the latest example of the Obama White House mimicking its predecessor's reflexive preference for secrecy over openness: the administration has turned down a request from a good-government group to release the names of the health-industry execs who have gone to the White House to discuss health-care reform, reports the Los Angeles Times.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, George Bush, State Secrets

George Bush

Bush Personally Sent Card And Gonzo To Ashcroft's Hospital Bed

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 5:47PM

This great catch by Marcy Wheeler might be the most shocking nugget of all from the IGs report on surveillance.

The report goes into some detail about that famous visit made by Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales to then-AG John Ashcroft, when Ashcroft was in the hospital, and essentially incapacitated, after gall bladder surgery. The White House needed the Attorney General's sign-off to continue its warrantless wiretapping program.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, John Ashcroft, Wiretapping

Alberto Gonzales

WH Counsel Gonzo To DOJ: When We Said We Cared About Your Legal Opinions On Surveillance, We Didn't Really Mean It

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 5:17PM

Another great nugget from that just-released inspector generals' report on surveillance...

Check out the amazing 2004 letter from Alberto Gonzales, at the time the White House counsel, to then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who had raised "serious issues" about the legal basis of the surveillance program, and particularly the lack of congressional notification.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, Justice Department, Wiretapping

George Bush

Was Bush Kept In The Dark On DOJ Concerns About Surveillance?

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 4:49PM

One passage on the IGs report on surveillance suggests something that perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise -- that President Bush was kept in the dark by members of the White House staff about about serious objections to the surveillance program raised by others in the administration.

To wit:

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Topics: George Bush, Justice Department, Wiretapping

George Bush

Miers Testifies In US Attorneys Probe -- When Will Rove?

Zachary Roth | June 16, 2009, 6:06PM

Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel under President Bush, has finally testified, behind closed doors, as part of Congress's investigation of the US attorney firings, reports FOXNews.com.

That raises an obvious question: When will Karl Rove do the same? Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, told TPMmuckraker last month that he expected Rove to testify in early June. But today Luskin did not immediately return our call.

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Topics: George Bush, Harriet Miers, House Judiciary, John Cornyn, Justice Department, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys

Barack Obama

Obama Admin Mimics Bush Again: White House Records Are Secret

Zachary Roth | June 16, 2009, 10:03AM

Add another (perhaps more minor) entry to the list of ways in which the Obama administration is mimicking its predecessor on issues of transparency.

MSNBC.com reports that the Secret Service has denied the news outlet's request for the names of visitors to the White House since President Obama was sworn in. It also denied a narrower request by the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for records of visits by coal executives.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Torture

Barack Obama

CIA Stance On Torture Tape Docs Suggests Obama's New Open Government Era Won't Materialize

Zachary Roth | June 9, 2009, 1:49PM

It's looking more and more like Barack Obama's pledge to usher in a new era of openness in government may well go unfulfilled.

Yesterday, administration lawyers cited national security concerns to argue that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released. And in the wake of that news, open-government advocates are reluctantly acknowledging that, despite Obama's campaign promises, his approach to secrecy on issues of national security will likely not depart significantly from that of George Bush.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, CIA Tapes, George Bush, State Secrets, Torture, Wiretapping

Alberto Gonzales

DOJ Torture Emails: How The Times Could Have Reported The Story

Zachary Roth | June 8, 2009, 1:01PM

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported that Justice Department lawyers agreed in 2005 that harsh interrogation techniques were legal. The impact of the story -- which was based largely on email messages written at the time by James Comey, then a high-ranking Justice Department official -- has been, it seems, to bolster the Dick Cheney position in the ongoing torture debate in Washington.

But the Times also, to its credit, released Comey's emails in full, allowing us all to make our own judgments about what they show. And after a close look at the emails, it seems clear that the paper could have used them to write a very different story -- with a very different effect on the public debate.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Steven Bradbury, Torture

Barack Obama

Nadler To Hold Hearing On State Secrets

Zachary Roth | June 1, 2009, 6:47PM

We've told you about one way in which President Obama has so far continued his predecessor's tactics: by invoking the state secrets privilege to argue for the dismissal of lawsuits in the war on terror.

And now Congress will consider reforming the State Secrets Act, in an effort to make it more difficult to invoke it when national security concerns are not truly at take.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, State Secrets, Wiretapping

Torture

In Push-Back On Torture Pics Report, Is Obama Mimicking Bush?

Zachary Roth | May 29, 2009, 1:16PM

We've told you in recent months about the Obama administration's disappointing tendency to mimic some of its predecessor's more troubling war-on-terror tactics. But is the administration's approach to public relations another area to add to the list?

Yesterday's aggressive push-back against the Daily Telegraph report on torture photos suggests it could be.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Defense Department, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, Robert Gibbs, Torture

Alberto Gonzales

The Self-Rehabilitation Of Alberto Gonzales

Zachary Roth | May 27, 2009, 12:48PM

Amazing as it seems, there was a time not so long ago, when people were talking about a very different potential first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice: Alberto Gonzales. That never came to pass, of course. But it hasn't stopped Gonzo from using the Sotomayor nomination to get himself back in the media spotlight, making the rounds on cable news to discuss the historic moment.

Still, we can't help but feel there's a longer-term agenda behind the ex-AG's recent media tour. Call it the self-rehabilitation of Alberto Gonzales.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, Guantanamo, Justice Department, Torture, U.S. Attorneys

Barack Obama

Obama Administration Taking Secrecy Efforts Abroad

Zachary Roth | May 26, 2009, 2:27PM

This came out a few weeks ago, but it's worth taking note of: We've told you about the Obama administration's frequent invocations of the state secrets claim in domestic national security cases -- mimicking the Bush administration. But it now appears the administration is going further by leaning on our allies to adopt a similar approach.

Binyam Mohamed, who was released from Guantanamo in February, claims he was tortured into confessing to bombing plots, and that the British government is complicit in the torture, for feeding questions to the CIA.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Guantanamo, State Secrets, Torture

John McCain

Karen Hughes: Don't Blame Me For Torture

Zachary Roth | May 22, 2009, 2:51PM

You've got to hand it to Karen Hughes. She fights for what she believes in.

The former top Bush adviser talked torture in a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle:

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Topics: George Bush, John McCain, Torture

Torture

WaPo: Bushies Lobbying To Water Down Torture Report

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2009, 4:47PM

It looks like the Bushies are going all in to limit the damage from those torture memos.

The Washington Post reports that former Bush administration officials have launched a "behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign," designed to pressure DOJ to soften its forthcoming ethics report into the lawyers who approved torture.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Justice Department, Michael Mukasey, Torture

AIPAC

Harman And Goss: "Not ... Good Friends"

Zachary Roth | April 30, 2009, 5:10PM

Building off our post from yesterday -- in which we noted the interesting timing of the original 2006 report about the investigation into Jane Harman's AIPAC ties -- Foreign Policy's Laura Rozen has put together, on her personal blog, what amounts to a complete theory of the case. And it's a theory that implicates the Porter Goss camp right from the start.

So we thought we'd follow that road a bit further. It's not news that Harman and Goss haven't exactly been best buds, either while Goss chaired the House intelligence committee and Harman was its ranking Democrat, or later when Goss led the CIA from 2004 to 2006.* One former intel committee staffer explained the relationship to TPMmuckraker this way: "Jane is an assertive person. And Porter struck me as someone who wanted to avoid conflict. I would not say they were good friends."

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Topics: AIPAC, CIA, George Bush, Jane Harman, Porter Goss, Wiretapping

Pat Leahy

Leahy to Bybee: Why Not Give Us Your Side Of Torture Story?

Zachary Roth | April 29, 2009, 1:49PM

As the calls for his impeachment grow louder, Jay Bybee -- the Bush OLC lawyer who wrote one of the torture memos, and who is now a federal judge -- has been given the chance to share his side of the story.

The unlikely invitation comes from Pat Leahy, the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee. In a letter sent to Bybee today, Leahy invites him to testify before the committee about his role in writing the memos.

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Topics: George Bush, Jay Bybee, Justice Department, Pat Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, Torture

Barack Obama

Court Rejects Obama Admin's State Secrets Claim

Zachary Roth | April 28, 2009, 2:29PM

A court has rejected the Obama administration's claim of the state secret privilege.

Via the blog Legal Pad: A three-member panel of the 9th circuit Court of Appeals ruled this morning on a request from the government that it dismiss the Jeppesen case, which focuses on the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

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Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, George Bush, Justice Department, State Secrets, Wiretapping

George Bush

Senate Releases Declassified Narrative Of OLC Torture Opinions

Zachary Roth | April 22, 2009, 6:27PM

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) of the Senate Intelligence committee has just released a declassified narrative (pdf) of the OLC's development of its opinions on torture.

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has already picked out a key excerpt, that sheds some light on just who in the Bush administration helped devise and approve the torture policies:

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Topics: Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, George Bush, George Tenet, Harriet Miers, Jay Rockefeller, John Ashcroft, Torture

Condi Rice

Condi Aide: Bushies Told Me Anti-Torture Memo Was "Inconvenient"

Zachary Roth | April 22, 2009, 5:50PM

As we noted, Philip Zelikow, a former top lawyer to Condi Rice at the State Department, yesterday wrote that the White House tried to destroy all copies of a memo he authored, which took issue with the legal opinions laid out in the infamous OLC torture memos.

Today, Zelikow appeared on MSNBC to flesh out that story. Among other things, he reveals that the Bushies said his memo was "inconvenient to have around." (Would it have been too much for Andrea Mitchell to have followed up by asking him who, exactly, said that?)

Watch:

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Topics: Condi Rice, George Bush, Justice Department, Torture

Torture

Turley: We Need A Special Torture Prosecutor, Not Some Lame Commission

Zachary Roth | April 22, 2009, 10:02AM

Jonathan Turley, the media-friendly George Washington Law School professor, who's an outspoken advocate of curbing executive power, gave a bravura performance on MSNBC's Countdown last night, on the subject of possible torture prosecutions.

Arguing that investigations aren't just necessary but long overdue, Turley made two important points that have been getting a bit lost in the rapid-fire debate lately.

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, George Tenet, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Justice Department, Steven Bradbury, Torture

Jay Bybee

Feingold Latest To Call For Bybee Impeachment

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 6:17PM

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) is the latest to call for the impeachment of Judge Jay Bybee, in response to the release of those torture memos last week.

Bybee wrote one of the memos in 2002, when he served in the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel.

Here's Feingold's statement:

The just released OLC memos, including the 2002 memo authored by Jay Bybee, are a disgrace. The idea that one of the architects of this perversion of the law is now sitting on the federal bench is very troubling. The memos offer some of the most explicit evidence yet that Mr. Bybee and others authorized torture and they suggest that grounds for impeachment can be made. Clearly, the Justice Department has the responsibility to investigate this matter further. As a Senator, I would be a juror in any impeachment trial so I don't want to reach a conclusion until all the evidence is before me.

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Topics: George Bush, Jay Bybee, Jerrold Nadler, Justice Department, Russ Feingold, Torture

Media

White House Press Corps Badgers Gibbs On Torture Stance

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 4:45PM

The White House press corps gave Robert Gibbs a hard time today about President Obama's comments this morning that left the door open to prosecutions of Bush officials for torture.

It's true that the president's comments go further than anything he'd said before, and could suggest that the White House is tacking this way and that on a crucial subject. That impression is strengthened by the fact that the White House has now had to walk back Rahm Emanuel's comments from Sunday that the Bushies wouldn't be prosecuted.

Late Update: Looks like The Huffington Post's Sam Stein had the same response to the briefing that we did.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Media, Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Torture

John Conyers

Conyers To Hold Hearings On Torture Memos

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 4:39PM

Rep. John Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, has announced that he plans to hold hearings into the Bush-era OLC memos released last week.

Despite his pledge to hold hearings in his own committee, Conyers said he agrees with President Obama's statement that he favors a probe conducted by a bipartisan commission, rather than solely by a congressional committee.

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, House Judiciary, John Conyers, Torture

George Bush

CAP Circulating Petition To Impeach Bybee

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 2:46PM

Think Progress, the blog of the Center for American Progress, is circulating an online petition calling on Congress to impeach Jay Bybee, who, while at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, wrote one of the torture memos released last week. Bybee is currently a federal judge.

CAP is led by John Podesta, a close White House ally who helped run Barack Obama's transition.

Think Progress joins Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Jerry Nadler, the New York Times, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in calling for Bybee's impeachment.

Late Update: Sen. Pat Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary committee, has called on Bybee to step down from the bench, though he doesn't seem to have mentioned anything about impeachment.

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Topics: George Bush, Jay Bybee, Jerrold Nadler, Justice Department, Torture

Jane Harman

CORRECTED: CQ's Stein On Countdown

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 1:35PM

We didn't have the chance to get to this earlier but CQ's Jeff Stein went on MSNBC's Countdown last night to talk about his now-famous report on Jane Harman and AIPAC*.

Among other things, Stein said that there are "several people who have known this for some time."

And interestingly, he adds that, according to his sources,the investigation into Harman that Time first reported on back in 2006 "never got started" because it was quashed by then-AG Alberto Gonzales.

The whole segment is worth watching...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

* This sentence has been corrected from an earlier version that wrongly said Stein had appeared on Hardball.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, Jane Harman, Justice Department, Wiretapping

Barack Obama

Obama: Torture Prosecutions For Bushies Is A Question For AG

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 12:27PM

President Obama is leaving the door open for prosecutions of Bush DOJ officials who provided the legal rationale to support torture policies.

In comments to reporters this morning, Obama said he didn't support prosecuting CIA officers who were carrying out the policy. But:

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Topics: Barack Obama, Eric Holder, George Bush, Justice Department, Torture

Torture

White House: Rahm Didn't Mean What He Said On Not Prosecuting Bushies For Torture

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 10:06AM

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel went on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos and clearly declared that the Obama administration would not prosecute the Bushies who "devised" torture policies.

That seemed to go further than anything the administration had said before. So yesterday we called the White House to get a more formal statement on the issue. And when we didn't hear back, we got to wondering: had Rahm been freelancing, and gotten out ahead of White House policy?

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Topics: Barack Obama, George Bush, Rahm Emanuel, Torture

Barack Obama

Tapper Presses Gibbs On State Secrets

Zachary Roth | April 20, 2009, 6:50PM

Jake Tapper of ABC News asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today about a subject we've been writing about lately -- the administration's several invocations of the state secrets privilege, despite Barack Obama's criticism, as a presidential candidate last year, of President Bush's use of the privilege.

In response, Gibbs talked about the need to balance transparency with the need to protect national security.

Watch: