Bush administration domestic eavesdropping plan: “It was the biggest legal mess I had ever encountered,” [former head of Office of Legal Counsel]

Panel Is Told of ‘Mess’ Over Eavesdropping | By NEIL A. LEWIS | Published: October 3, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Jack L. Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor who led the Justice Department office that objected to a Bush administration domestic eavesdropping plan, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the situation became a “legal mess” because the White House did not believe either the courts or Congress had any role to play.

Professor Goldsmith told the Judiciary Committee that chances to create a legally justified program were undercut by senior White House officials who were averse to any restraint on presidential power and devoted to extreme secrecy.

“It was the biggest legal mess I had ever encountered,” said Professor Goldsmith, who raised his objections to the program run by the National Security Agency while head of the Office of Legal Counsel. ..