Boehner may have leaked classified information

Watchdog group says House Minority Leader talked about a secret court ruling on a Fox News show.

7 Aug 2007 // A congressional watchdog has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether House Minority Leader John Boehner leaked classified information during an appearance on Fox News.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which also investigated former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney's links to a congressional corruption scandal, filed the complaint Monday. The group says Boehner, R-West Chester, appears to have leaked classified information by detailing a secret court decision that concluded that aspects of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program exceeded the agency's authority.

"There's been a ruling, over the last four or five months, that prohibits the ability of our intelligence services and our counterintelligence people from listening in to two terrorists in other parts of the world where the communication could come through the United States," Boehner told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto during the July 31 television appearance.

Congress this weekend amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to give the Bush administration more authority to conduct wiretaps. Bush has signed the bill into law. Boehner's comments were intended to clarify why such changes were needed.

But CREW says the topic of the court decision was classified.

"Nothing about what the FISA courts do is public," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director. "Boehner told us all something none of us knew."

Brian Kennedy, Boehner's spokesman, said Boehner was merely repeating the contents of a January letter from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Congress. He called CREW's investigation "a partisan witch-hunt."

"It was a very public letter," Kennedy said. "(Congress) had hearings on that particular ruling, and that was what Boehner was referring to."