White House hasn't responded to request for info on Gonzales testimony

RAW STORY

The White House has refused to comply with a Republican senator's request for information about Alberto Gonzales's conflicting testimony on a secret surveillance program by a 12 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that he requested from the Bush administration a "letter addressing that question [of Gonzales' veracity] from the administration" by noon Tuesday, according to The Hill. He promised to release the letter to the media, but so far the word from Judiciary Committee staff is that no letter has arrived.

It is unclear whether the administration is refusing Specter's request outright or is simply tardy in delivering its response. A spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, the committee chairman who also is expected to receive the administration's response, told RAW STORY early Tuesday afternoon that no letter had arrived yet.

Specter's office was releasing little information Tuesday. The senator has been critical of Gonzales's performance and lack of credibility in his past testimony, but so far Specter has not signed on to a Democratic proposal for a special counsel to investigate whether the attorney general perjured himself. It remained unclear whether Specter would be pushed to join the Democrats in their call for investigation based on the Bush administration's failure to respond to his questions.

"I cannot speculate as to what will happen," Specter spokeswoman Blair Latoff said in an e-mail to RAW STORY Tuesday. "No idea which way Senator Specter is leaning."

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