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But Mr. Gonzales immediately drew sometimes harsh reactions from committee leaders. The panel's chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said federal law prohibits "any electronic surveillance without a court order."
And Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee's ranking Democrat and, like Mr. Specter, a former prosecutor, said Mr. Gonzales's assertions were not supported by history.
"Congress has given the president authority to monitor Al Qaeda messages legally, with checks to guard against abuses when Americans' conversations and e-mails are being monitored," Mr. Leahy said. "But instead of doing what the president has the authority to do legally, he's decided to do it illegally, without safeguards."
But throughout his testimony, Mr. Gonzales refused to retreat. Nor did he appear rattled in the least when Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, accused him of having misled the committee about the very existence of the program in his testimony a year ago, when his nomination to be attorney general was being considered.
Not so, the attorney general insisted, saying that he had answered a "hypothetical question" a year ago. ...
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