WASHINGTON — The White House refused Thursday to provide senators additional documents on attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales’ involvement in the decision to allow aggressive interrogations of terrorism detainees, setting up a confrontation with Democrats looking into his role in the now-repudiated policies.
Gonzales, who served as President Bush’s White House counsel, is pledging to abide by treaties that ban torture of prisoners, if he is confirmed by the Senate as the first Hispanic attorney general. He will answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in Bush’s 2002 decision that the president had the authority to bypass international anti-torture accords.
Senate Democrats say the White House has refused to give them all of the memos and documents they need to trace how that decision was made so they can review Gonzales’ role and how it would affect him as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
But David Leitch, the White House’s deputy counsel, told ranking Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont in a letter released Thursday that the administration has already turned over all of the documents it plans to.