On the January 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Fox News chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle distorted remarks made by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) to falsely claim that Kennedy said the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program -- as President Bush described it -- does not violate the law. In fact, the next sentence of Kennedy's statement indicated that he believes such activities have operated outside of the law.

Angle aired a video clip of a January 24 press conference at which Kennedy stated: “When the president goes around and speaks and says we're monitoring calls from overseas from Al Qaeda to the United States, the NSA [National Security Agency] can go ahead and do that now under the law.” Angle then added, “Though Kennedy suspects the eavesdropping is far more than that, what he says is legal is what the president says he's doing.” But Angle did not inform Fox News viewers that Kennedy specifically cited a Congressional Research Service (CRS) study that concluded Bush had “exceeded the law.” Kennedy went on to add, “No one can read their [CRS] declaration about the president's conduct and not question the president's activity.”

From the January 24 press conference with Senate Democratic leaders and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary committee:

KENNEDY: Thirdly, when the president goes around and speaks like he did in Kansas yesterday and says we're monitoring calls from overseas from Al Qaeda to the United States, the NSA can go ahead and do that now under the law.

And fourthly, it isn't the Democrats that say that the president's exceeded the law, it's the Congressional Research Service. They're not Democrats, they're not Republicans, they're independent students of the Constitution and legislation. No one can read their declaration about the president's conduct and not question the president's activity.

From the January 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

ANGLE: After three days of an administration offensive and weeks of debate and accusations, there seems to be some agreement on what is illegal and what is not.

KENNEDY [video clip]: When the president goes around and speaks and says we are monitoring calls from overseas from Al Qaeda to the United States, the NSA can go ahead and do that now under the law.

ANGLE: Though Kennedy suspects the eavesdropping is far more than that, what he says is legal is what the president says he's doing.

BUSH [video clip]: The intercept of certain communications emanating between somebody inside the United States and outside the United States, and one of the numbers would be a -- reasonably suspected to be an Al Qaeda link.