By regulation, such material must be stored in a Sensitive Compartmented Storage Facility (SCIF). The notes contained operational aspects and other information about the NSA surveillance program that is classified at the TS/SCI level. We found that Gonzales took his classified handwritten notes home and stored them there for an indeterminate period of time. In sum, our investigation concluded that Gonzales mishandled classified materials regarding two highly sensitive compartmented programs. In Section IV we provide our analysis of Gonzales’s actions regarding the handling of the classified material. We also include a discussion of Gonzales’s familiarity with and use of the facilities available to him for the storage of classified materials. In Section III of this report we discuss the facts surrounding Gonzales’s creation and handling of the classified handwritten notes that caused this matter to be referred to the OIG, as well as his handling of the other classified documents at issue in this matter. Section II provides background information related to this matter, including an overview of classification issues for National Security Information, a description of the facilities available to Gonzales as Attorney General for storing classified information, and a summary of pertinent security briefings provided to Gonzales as White House Counsel and as Attorney General. This report summarizes the results of the OIG’s investigation. The classified materials that are the subject of this investigation consist of notes that Gonzales drafted to memorialize a classified briefing of congressional leaders about the NSA surveillance program when Gonzales was the White House Counsel draft and final Office of Legal Counsel opinions about both the NSA surveillance program and a detainee interrogation program correspondence from congressional leaders to the Director of Central Intelligence and other memoranda describing legal and operational aspects of the two classified programs. We also reviewed all of the classified documents at issue in this matter. We also interviewed attorneys in the White House Counsel’s Office, members of Gonzales’s staff within the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), and other officials in the Department knowledgeable about the handling of classified documents in general and the handling of the specific documents at issue in this investigation. Gonzales voluntarily agreed to an initial interview and two follow-up interviews. To conduct this investigation, the OIG interviewed Gonzales on three occasions. We investigated Gonzales’s handling of these documents as well. Other documents concerned a detainee interrogation program also classified at the TS/SCI level. Most of these documents also concerned the NSA surveillance program. The surveillance program is administered by the National Security Agency (NSA) and is classified at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level.ĭuring the course of the OIG investigation, we learned of several other classified documents that Gonzales may have mishandled. The allegations initially concerned Gonzales’s handling of a document that contained classified information about a sensitive intelligence program generally referred to in this report as the NSA surveillance program. The White House Counsel’s Office had initially notified the Department of Justice (Department) about the matter, and Wainstein, after consultation with other senior Department officials, referred the matter to the OIG for investigation.
The matter was referred to the OIG by Kenneth Wainstein, former Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, on August 10, 2007.
This report describes the investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into allegations that Alberto Gonzales mishandled classified documents while serving as the Attorney General.