Senate Gets No Answers on Probe of Columnist

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The Senate Judiciary Committee used the FBI’s probe of the late columnist Jack Anderson to challenge the Bush administration’s increasing use of executive power and privilege and to suggest that Justice Department’s attitude toward the prosecution of reporters in leak cases provided “an invitation to legislate on the subject,” including a reporter’s shield law. “Clearly, the ball is in our court,” chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said. Matthew Friedrich, chief of staff, Justice’s criminal division, declined to comment on the Anderson case, and was non-committal in response to most other questions, prompting Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to ask, “Why in heaven’s name were you sent up here.”