WASHINGTON — The Justice Department declined to prosecute former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for improperly, possibly illegally, storing in his office and home classified information about two of the Bush administration’s most sensitive counterterrorism efforts.
Removing classified materials from special secure facilities without proper authorization is a misdemeanor.
A report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department says the agency decided not to press charges against Gonzales, who resigned last year.
The report by Inspector General Glenn Fine found that Gonzales risked exposing at least some parts of the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance program, as well as interrogations of terrorist detainees.
Fine referred the case to the Justice Department’s National Security Division, but prosecutors dropped the case after an internal review.
At issue is how and where Gonzales stored the documents, which are classified as sensitive compartmentalized information, or SCI.
SCI materials are among the most sensitive levels of classified top secret documents. They are supposed to be stored only in special safes or facilities that can be viewed only by certain people with SCI security clearances.
At the Justice Department, however, Gonzales kept the documents in a safe in a fifth-floor office in the attorney general’s suite — which is not considered an SCI facility. In 2006, investigators found, the safe was searched by two employees who did not have SCI clearances but who looked through it “document by document” for papers requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
The report also found that Gonzales took some SCI documents — specifically, notes about the surveillance program — to his house in suburban Virginia when he was moving from his secure counsel’s office at the White House in early 2005 to the Justice Department.
Gonzales’ lawyers indicated the former attorney general was merely forgetful or unaware of the proper way to handle the top secret papers.
However, Tuesday’s report showed Gonzales was briefed on how to properly handle SCI material both while at the White House and at the Justice Department.
Fine’s office is still investigating Gonzales’ role in the 2006 firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
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