[JURIST] Recently released documents reveal that former Associate Deputy Attorney General David S. Kris expressed reservations about the Bush administration's legal rationale [JURIST document] for its warrantless domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. In an e-mail [excerpt, PDF] to an aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] made public Wednesday, Kris said that the Department of Justice's statutory arguments "had a slightly after-the-fact quality or feeling to them."

The e-mail messages and other documents – including an extensive January 2006 memo [PDF] – were released Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act [text] on a request [JURIST report] by the Electronic Privacy Information Center [advocacy website], the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] and the National Security Archive [official website]. Last month, the DOJ was ordered [PDF opinion; JURIST report] to turn over the documents. AP has more.