Did Clinton authorize warrantless searches?

In response to Al Gore's assertion that Bush has been breaking the law by authorizing warrantless wiretapping, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Gore was a hypocrite because the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches. "I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds,'' McClellan said of Gore.

McClellan cited an FBI search in 1993 of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton's deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick (yes, Gore-lick), had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

However, at the time of the Ames search and when Gorelick testified in 1994, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed.

In other words, since 1995 the law has clearly stated that both electronic surveillance and physical searches require warrants.

So who's the real hypocrite, Mr. McClellan?

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