Reading Room Document

Investigative Authority of the General Accounting Office

The General Accounting Office lacks statutory authority to review the Executive's discharge of its constitutional foreign policy responsibilities. GAO is precluded by the Intelligence Oversight Act from access to intelligence information. The memorandum also reviews generally the executive privilege principles that apply in the contexts of intelligence, law enforcement, and deliberative process information. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24106/download.

August 16, 1988