Clapper must be prosecuted for lying to Congress, lawmaker says
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 6, 2013 3:51PM GMT
US Representative James Sensenbrenner Jr. says the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, should be prosecuted for lying to Congress about the nature of massive US spying programs.
'Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,' the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill newspaper.
'The only way laws are effective is if they're enforced,' Sensenbrenner said. 'If it's a criminal offense - and I believe Mr. Clapper has committed a criminal offense - then the Justice Department ought to do its job.'
Clapper gave false testimony during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March about the mass collection of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA).
During the hearing, Senator Ron Wyden asked Clapper whether the NSA "collects any type of data at all on hundreds of millions of Americans.
Clapper told Wyden: "No sir, it does not." When asked by Wyden for clarification, Clapper said "not wittingly." Clapper later apologized for giving a "clearly erroneous" testimony to Congress.
Sensenbrenner is one of the architects of the Patriot Act that was signed into law by former president George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The law vastly expanded the government's authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight.
Sensenbrenner said the NSA had overstepped its bounds when abuses of the Patriot Act by the NSA were brought to light in June by whistleblower Edward Snowden. "Seizing phone records of millions of innocent people is excessive and un-American."
The lawmaker also said President Barack Obama should fire NSA Director Keith Alexander because of the still unraveling scandal.
AHT/HJ
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