Legal Battle Looms Over Domestic Spy Documents

A showdown on the White House's warantless wiretapping program looms after the
Senate Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas for documents on the progam, and the administration said it had no plans to comply, claiming the material is classified and off limits. The president may invoke executive privilege to prevent the documents' release, Reuters reports.

The domestic spying program, abandoned in January, was also the subject of a closed House panel hearing yesterday; former AG John Ashcroft testified that it was the subject of fierce debate within the White House, contridicting earlier testimony by his successor, Alberto Gonzales, the AP reports.

  (More Senate Judiciary Committee stories.)