Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary- Mark Up to Vote on the Nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States

Statement

Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary- Mark Up to Vote on the Nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States

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SEN. SCHUMER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And today, I voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general of the United States. I did so for one overarching reason: The Department of Justice, once the crown jewel among our government institutions, is adrift and rudderless. It desperately needs a strong and independent leader at the helm to set it back on course, and I believe Judge Mukasey is that person.

As this committee's own investigation has found over the last nine months, the department has been run into the ground by the Bush administration. The department has been mired in scandal, inexplicably fired U.S. attorneys, political prosecutions, ideological litmus tests for career lawyers, mass departures by civil rights lawyers, the list goes on and on.

But now we're on the brink of a reversal. There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who oppose Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around in these areas. We need a leader to take care of the department, not a caretaker, as the president has promised if we reject Judge Mukasey. To accept such an unaccountable caretaker, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff David Addington without check. All the work we have done, the months and months and months of hearings and discussions, all the work we have done to pressure Attorney General Gonzales to resign would be undone in a moment.

Now let me be clear on the torture question. I deeply oppose this administration's opaque policy on the use of torture, its refusal to reveal what forms of interrogation it considers acceptable. I deeply oppose all forms of torture. It debases us and opens our own citizens to abuse abroad. Specifically, I believe that the cruel and inhumane technique of waterboarding is not only repugnant but also illegal under current laws and conventions, period. I also support Congress's efforts to pass additional measures that would explicitly ban this and other forms of torture.

When Judge Mukasey came before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he refused to state that waterboarding was illegal. That was unsatisfactory to me and many members of the committee on both sides of the aisle. But he has personally made clear to me that if Congress passed further legislation in this area, the president would have no legal authority to ignore it and Judge Mukasey would enforce it. From a Bush nominee, this is no small commitment, as it flatly contradicts David Addington's own view of executive power and the president's authority to order torture.

And this is an important point. Even without the proposed law in place, Judge Mukasey would be more likely than a caretaker to find on his own that waterboarding is illegal. Indeed, his written answers to our questions have demonstrated more openness to ending the practices we abhor than either of this president's previous attorney general nominees have. We could expect no such openness from a caretaker attorney general.

In many respects, Judge Mukasey reminds me of Jim Comey, a former deputy attorney general in the Bush administration who disagreed with us on many issues but displayed admirable, unique independence. He's been widely praised for it.

Now, I understand and greatly respect the view of some of my colleagues that the torture question trumps all other considerations. For the Senate to make a bold declaration about torture and waterboarding by rejecting Judge Mukasey is appealing. But to defeat him would abandon the hope of instituting many of the reforms called for by our investigation. And if six months from now with a caretaker attorney general, the same policies continued, the victory in defeating Mukasey would seem hollow.

No one questions that Judge Mukasey would do much to remove the stench of politics from the Justice Department. I believe we should give him that chance.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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