Gonzo's lies

As you probably already know, the Associated Press produced a White House document last night that utterly contradicts Gonzales' sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee the day before yesterday:

WASHINGTON - Documents show that eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Leahy is giving Gonzo several days to "correct" his testimony, but Gonzo's office is saying he's standing behind his testimony that the briefing was not about the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" (TSP) but about some other program. In addition to the document, the recollection of the participants (at least the Democratic ones) refutes Gonzales'.

Now, Gonzales has only two choices. If he refuses to correct his testimony, he will clearly be subject to a perjury charge. On the other hand, if he corrects his testimony, that means he perjured himself a year ago when he told Congress that there was no controversy about the TSP. We now know, of course, from the testimony of Jim Comey, that there was serious controversy about the TSP that led Gonzo to try to get a sign off on it from Ashcroft while he was sedated in the hospital because he couldn't get Comey (who was then acting Attorney General) to sign off on it.

So, whichever way it goes, Gonzo perjured himself. Of course, it's unlikely he'll be tried for it, since he runs the Justice Department. And, even if he were tried and convicted, we have the Scooter Libby precedent.