cross-posted at THINK PROGRESS

Senate Judiciary Committee heads Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, demanding he provide answers by June 5 to their “longstanding questions about the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.”

Leahy and Specter

The senators told Gonzales that the new request came in light of James Comey’s extraordinary testimony last week, which raised “very serious questions about your personal behavior and commitment to the rule of law.”

This Committee has made no fewer than eight formal requests over the past 18 months - to the White House, the Attorney General, or other Department of Justice officials - seeking documents and information related to this surveillance program. These requests have sought the Executive Branch legal analysis of this program and documents reflecting its authorization by the President. You have rebuffed all requests for documents and your answers to our questions have been wholly inadequate and, at times, misleading.

“To consider any changes to FISA,” Leahy and Specter write, “it is critical that this Committee understand how the Department and the FISA Court have interpreted FISA and the perceived flaws that led the Administration to operate a warrantless surveillance program outside of FISA’s provisions for over five years.”

In other words, Leahy and Specter are telling Gonzales: turn over the information now, or President Bush’s desired changes to FISA are going nowhere.

reada the entire letter at THINK PROGRESS