Judiciary Committee to consider more subpoenas

The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to consider a new round of subpoenas Thursday that would raise the stakes for Democrats’ investigation of the legal basis for the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

{mosads}Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) fired off a frustrated letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last month seeking documents related to the internal debate over the Justice Department’s approval of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. Their deadline of June 5 for compliance was ignored, which set up the subpoena vote scheduled Thursday. If it succeeds, it would bring the wiretapping inquiry to Congress’s front burner after several months of focus on the U.S. attorney scandal.

Leahy and Specter also warned in their letter that their committee could not consider any new authorizing legislation for the administration’s surveillance program without first receiving the documents at issue. The Senate Intelligence Committee has also warned it will only consider the administration’s proposal if lawmakers are more fully informed.

Republicans may exercise their right to postpone the vote by one week, but they are likely to let the subpoena authorization go through.