MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Sen. Patrick Leahy says he’ll have some tough questions for President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next head of the FBI.
The Vermont Democrat chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing James Comey’s nomination to replace Robert Mueller as the bureau’s director.
Leahy says he’s concerned that while serving as a deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, Comey approved a legal memo that authorized the use of waterboarding and other techniques recognized as torture under domestic and international law.
Leahy says he also wants to find out what Comey sees as the limits of government electronic surveillance programs and to get his thoughts on the government’s collection of journalists’ phone records.
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