Pelosi now recalls being briefed on NSA's wiretapping of Rep. Harman Jeremy Gantz

Published: Wednesday April 22, 2009





Print This Email This STORY UPDATED: Pelosi allegedly "went ballistic" when pushed by a wealthy donor to make Harman Intelligence Committee chairman in exchange for continued donations.



Contradicting a statement made Tuesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday that she had in fact been briefed "a few years ago" about a 2005 FBI wiretap involving Californian Representative Jane Harman.



But Pelosi said she was never told the details of the wiretap, and denied that her knowledge of it and a subsequent Justice Department review had anything to do with Harman being passed over for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee in late 2006, the Washington Post reported.



"I didn't even know what [those briefing me] were talking about," Pelosi said. "All they said was that she was wiretapped."



Harman was allegedly caught by an FBI wiretap pledging to intervene in an espionage case involving Israeli lobbyists, the Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein revealed Sunday.



Wednesday, Stein reported that Harmon was overheard on a later NSA wiretap discussing with a suspected Israeli agent "a failed fundraising ploy designed to get her named chairman of the House Intelligence Committee."



An anonymous former national security official who heard the recorded conversation said the suspected agent was "heard telling Harman that 'Pelosi went ballistic' when [wealthy Israel supporter Haim] Saban allegedly warned her that if Harman were not made chairman of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections "'you'll get no more contributions from me...'"



Quoting former senior Bush Administration officials, Stein's Sunday article also alleges that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales conspired to drop criminal action against the then-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman (D-CA), because he needed her help when a firestorm of criticism erupted in December 2005 after the New York Times published details about the NSAs warrantless wiretapping program.



According to a purported transcript of the wiretapped call between Harman and a suspected Israeli agent  which was reportedly tapped legally under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court  Harman was recorded saying she would waddle into the AIPAC case if you think itll make a difference.



In exchange for Harmans help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win, Stein added.



Pelosi, who noted Wednesday that it is a "tradition" for the House's top Democrat and top Republican to be briefed any time a member of the legislative body appears on a wiretap, said Harman didn't receive the chairmanship because she had already held for two terms.



The only reason Jane is not the chairman is because she already served the two terms, Pelosi told a New York Times reporter. It had nothing to do with donors, nothing to do with eaves-dropping, wiretapping.



Harman has denied allegations that she intervened on behalf of the two Israeli lobbyists, this week calling for the Justice Department to release the wiretap transcripts. But Wednesday she began walking back her original and emphatic denials.



Pelosi called Harman an "extraordinarily talented member of Congress" and a "patriotic American" who "would never do anything to hurt her country.





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