Patrick Leahy asked if Gonzalez came to the conclusion that the authorization
to use force gave the power to the President to authorize the taps before the
authorization was passed by Congress. Gonzalez said he hadn’t come to the
conclusion but would not answer if others had. The authorization for force was
on September 14, 2001 and the President authorized the program on September 18,
2001. Gonzalez tried to beat around the question by bringing up the attacks on
the shock of them but Leahy would not go for it and told Gonzalez “I was hear on
September 11, I don’t need to hear about it”.

Leahy asked if this law gave authorization to open first class mail of US
citizens. Gonzalez would not answer the question and kept tap dancing around it.