CONSPIRACY TO LIE TO CONGRESS [View All]

[kpete]

Conspiracy to Lie to Congress?
by mcjoan
Tue Apr 15, 2008 at 06:40:18 PM PDT
Via mateosf, FBI director Robert Mueller and his agency might be in some serious trouble.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just published a report on the misuse of a National Security Letter by the FBI. Using the Freedom of Information Act, they obtained FBI documents showing that the FBI purposely delayed an investigation in the 2005 London bombings. From the EFF blog:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/04/eff-issues-report-abuse-national-security-letter
FBI documents show that, over the span of three days in July 2005, the Charlotte Division of the FBI first obtained educational records pursuant to a grand jury subpoena, and then -- at the direction of FBIHQ -- returned the records and sought them again pursuant to an improper NSL.

The improper NSL was refused by the university, but the FBI finally obtained them pursuant to a second grand jury subpoena. Later in July 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller used the delay in obtaining these particular records as an example of why the FBI needed administrative subpoena power instead of NSLs in testimony.

The misuse of the NSL was not formally reported until February 2007, a short time before Inspector General Glenn Fine’s report on the abuse of NSLs was due before Congress. While the Inspector General's report identified dozens of instances in which National Security Letters may have violated laws and agency regulations and were not reported, this is the first time documents have shown that top FBI executives were aware of a misuse before it was officially reported. It took almost two years before the incident was formally reported.

...........

The FBI knew that the university records were not obtainable via an NSL, and the university properly rejected that request--a request that had already fulfilled once, legally in response to a grand jury subpoena. And which was fulfilled, again, when the FBI field office came back with the proper subpoena after the whole exercise in NSL futility.

An exercise that has all the appearances of having been set up for Robert Mueller to appear two weeks later before a Senate committee.

.....................

It would appear officials in the FBI, at very high levels that may or may not have included Mueller, conspired to lie to Congress. That would be a felony. It also raises the question of whether there are other violations of NSLs that have never been reported and that the FBI might still be trying to keep under wraps.



more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/15/2141/41172/863/496468