Comey Breaks Silence: White House Tried To Force Incapacitated Ashcroft To Back Spying Program
Comey Breaks Silence: White House Tried To Force Incapacitated Ashcroft To Back Spying Program
In March 2004, President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying efforts were temporarily suspended after then-acting Attorney General James Comey refused to sign on to an extension of the program “amid concerns about its legality and oversight.”
Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Comey detailed the extraordinary and potentially illegal efforts made by Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card — then White House counsel and chief of staff, respectively — to attempt to force John Ashcroft to overrule Comey, despite the fact that Ashcroft was debilitated in a hospital with pancreatitis.
In his testimony today, Comey spoke for the first time about:
– The high-speed pursuit that took place when Comey learned that Card and Gonzales were on their way to see Ashcroft at the hospital;
– The hospital meeting, in which the seriously ill Ashcroft “stunned” Comey by lifting “his head off the pillow and in very strong terms” rejecting Card and Gonzales’ effort to have him reauthorize the spying program;
– Comey’s admission that he believed he had “witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me”;
– Andrew Card’s subsequent “very upset” call to Comey, in which Card claimed that he and Gonzales had visited Ashcroft “just…to wish him well”;
– The White House’s eventual agreement to suspend the warrantless spying in the face of a threat of mass resignations, including from FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Ashcroft
Details below:
First, Comey discussed the high-speed pursuit that took place when he learned that Card and Gonzales were on their way to see Ashcroft at the hospital:
COMEY: I was headed home at about 8 o’clock that evening, my security detail was driving me. And I remember exactly where I was — on Constitution Avenue — and got a call from Attorney General Ashcroft’s chief of staff telling me that he had gotten a call…and that as a result of that call Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to see Mr. Ashcroft. […]
So I hung up the phone, immediately called my chief of staff, told him to get as many of my people as possible to the hospital immediately. I hung up, called Director Mueller and — with whom I’d been discussing this particular matter and had been a great help to me over that week — and told him what was happening. He said, I’ll meet you at the hospital right now.
Told my security detail that I needed to get to George Washington Hospital immediately. They turned on the emergency equipment and drove very quickly to the hospital.
I got out of the car and ran up — literally ran up the stairs with my security detail.
SCHUMER: What was your concern? You were in obviously a huge hurry.
COMEY: I was concerned that, given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to that.
Comey then detailed his meeting at the hospital with Card, Gonzales, and Ashcroft:
COMEY: I raced to the hospital room, entered. And Mrs. Ashcroft was standing by the hospital bed, Mr. Ashcroft was lying down in the bed, the room was darkened. And I immediately began speaking to him, trying to orient him as to time and place, and try to see if he could focus on what was happening, and it wasn’t clear to me that he could. He seemed pretty bad off. […]
I went out in the hallway. Spoke to Director Mueller by phone. He was on his way. I handed the phone to the head of the security detail and Director Mueller instructed the FBI agents present not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances. And I went back in the room. […]
And it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card. They came over and stood by the bed. They greeted the attorney general very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there — to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was — which I will not do.
And Attorney General Ashcroft then stunned me. He lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me — drawn from the hour-long meeting we’d had a week earlier — and in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, But that doesn’t matter, because I’m not the attorney general…and he pointed to me, and I was just to his left.
The two men did not acknowledge me. They turned and walked from the room.
Comey explained how, shortly afterwards, Card called him “very upset and demanded that I come to the White House immediately.”
COMEY: I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness present.
He replied, What conduct? We were just there to wish him well.
And I said again, After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness. And I intend that witness to be the solicitor general of the United States [Ted Olson]. … He asked whether I was refusing to come to the White House. I said, No, sir, I’m not. I’ll be there. I need to go back to the Department of Justice first. […]
I was very upset. I was angry. I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. I thought he had conducted himself, and I said to the attorney general, in a way that demonstrated a strength I had never seen before. But still I thought it was improper.
And it was for that reason that I thought there ought to be somebody with me if I’m going to meet with Mr. Card. […]
SCHUMER: OK. And then did you meet with Mr. Card?
COMEY: I did. I went with Mr. Olson driving — my security detail drove us to the White House. We went into the West Wing. Mr. Card would not allow Mr. Olson to enter his office. He asked Mr. Olson to please sit outside in his sitting area. I relented and went in to meet with Mr. Card alone. We met, had a discussion, which was much more — much calmer than the discussion on the telephone.
After — I don’t remember how long, 10 or 15 minutes — Mr. Gonzales arrived and brought Mr. Olson into the room. And the four of us had a discussion. […]
SCHUMER: Can you tell us what happened the next day?
COMEY: The program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting as to its legality. And I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th.
Finally, Comey explained how President Bush eventually agreed to “put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality,” but only after Mueller, Ashcroft, Comey, and various other officials threatened to resign.
SCHUMER: And why did you decide to resign? …
COMEY: I believed that I couldn’t — I couldn’t stay, if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis. I just simply couldn’t stay.
SCHUMER: Now, let me just ask you this. And this obviously is all troubling. As I understand it, you believed that others were also prepared to resign, not just you, is that correct? … Was one of those Director Mueller?
COMEY: I believe so. You’d have to ask him, but I believe so. […]
SCHUMER: How about your chief of staff?
COMEY: Yes. He was certainly going to go when I went.
SCHUMER: Right.
How about Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff?
COMEY: My understanding was that he would go as well. … Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff asked me something that meant a great deal to him, and that is that I not resign until Mr. Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me. He was very concerned that Mr. Ashcroft was not well enough to understand fully what was going on. And he begged me to wait until — this was Thursday that I was making this decision — to wait til Monday to give him the weekend to get oriented enough so that I wouldn’t leave him behind, was his concern.
SCHUMER: And it was his view that Mr. Ashcroft was likely to resign as well?
COMEY: Yes.
SCHUMER: So what did you do when you heard that?COMEY: I agreed to wait. I said that what I would do is — that Friday would be last day. And Monday morning I would resign. […]
SCHUMER: Now, let’s go to the next day, which was March 12. Can you tell us what happened then?
COMEY: I went to the Oval Office — as I did every morning as acting attorney general — with Director Mueller to brief the president and the vice president on what was going on on Justice Department’s counterterrorism work.
We had the briefing. And as I was leaving, the president asked to speak to me, took me in his study and we had a one-on-one meeting for about 15 minutes — again, which I will not go into the substance of. It was a very full exchange. And at the end of that meeting, at my urging, he met with Director Mueller, who was waiting for me downstairs.
He met with Director Mueller again privately, just the two of them. And then after those two sessions, we had his direction to do the right thing, to do what we…
SCHUMER: Had the president’s direction to do the right thing?
COMEY: Right. We had the president’s direction to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality.
And so we then set out to do that. And we did that.
You can read the full testimony HERE.
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55 Responses to “Comey Breaks Silence: White House Tried To Force Incapacitated Ashcroft To Back Spying Program”
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WOW!!!!
Why am I surprised by this? Oh that’s right, it was 2004. Election year. THey had to have those wiretaps!!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:19 pmGeeze, this sounds like real potboiler stuff from a Grisham novel.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:20 pmStop the SNITCHIN’
May 15th, 2007 at 1:21 pmHigh speed chases? Unreal.
LOL!!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:21 pmImportant detail: Ashcroft’s wife had forbidden all visitors to her husband. It took a call from The Decider himself to get her to allow Card and Gonzalez to visit him. She then called Comey to head them off.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:21 pm#1 - not surprising at all. It should be clear to all of us that this government has absolutely no respect for the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
But, the fact of the matter remains. The Bill of rights is not just some good idea - it’s the law.
This country has turned into “guilty until proven innocent…”
Some interesting reading:
“Your Innocence is No Protection”
May 15th, 2007 at 1:23 pmhttp://www.populistamerica.com/ your_innocence_is_no_protection
Impeachment Pie Y’all?
May 15th, 2007 at 1:24 pmMore truthfulness about what is really going on in the Bush admin.
Keep it coming.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:25 pmWhat I can’t understand is why these crooks just didn’t forge Ashcroft’s signature. He’s a company man and would have signed off on that, you know, so to speak.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pmWhy is this news? I knew about this bedside meeting and Comey’s refusal to authorize the Warrantless Wiretap program over a year ago.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pmAmazing…
This administration should really just be put in jail. What kind of government have we elected?
May 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pmThis is really disturbing and disgusting.
Gonzo and Card are real scumbags to do this, and Chimpy is a scumbag to okay it.
This is further proof that Gonzo is an incompetent idiot. He should have known that Ashcroft was not AG at the time and that trying to get Ashcroft to ovverule Comey.
I take back most of the nasty things I said about Ashcroft. He is still a bad singer though.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pmIn the voice of the always too easily stunned Peter Griffin… “Holy Crap!”
May 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pmHey, Pelosi, is impeachment back on the table yet?
May 15th, 2007 at 1:28 pmSobering thought - Gonzales is the AG because there were some things Ashcroft would not do. The only way to stop this circus of fools is to IMPEACH!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:28 pmMr. President, Good afternoon to you, sir.
By the way, what demon are you possessed with today? I thought you had the full confidence in Mr. Weelfolwitzer. Pick a position, I’m begging you.
By the way, please don’t fire me, sir….I’m just unsettled, that all.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:28 pmWow.
Yeah, what Wayne said.
And… wow.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:30 pmStop the SNITCHIN’
Comment by Mr. President
The Brushhog is just sitting in the barn, collecting dust. Time to get a start on that there spring brush clearin’…
May 15th, 2007 at 1:31 pmIf this all doesn’t end in impeachment of Bush and Cheney and Gonzales and etc., then I will have lost COMPLETE faith in our political system and whatever happens will be well deserved (and hopefully I can be on the first plane out of here and not caring if the door hits me on the way out.)
May 15th, 2007 at 1:33 pm#13 wasn’t me. It was a name jacker.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:35 pmI’m emailing TP to have it removed.
Bombing of the World Bank begins in 15 minutes.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:36 pmBush should be impeached and Hillary installed as President for life!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:36 pmBan the GOP!
Ashcroft my be a christianist loon, but it sounds like he believes in the rule of law… even if he would like to change the law to be more like the bible…
May 15th, 2007 at 1:36 pm#13 wasn’t me. It was a name jacker.
I’m emailing TP to have it removed.
Comment by Gerald Gibson Jr
You cowards must be really pissed off at what I say to use my name like that.
I DID say #13 and I DIDNT say #20…
Heres a clue for you cowards… think for yourself and then post with your OWN name…
May 15th, 2007 at 1:39 pmWhy exactly isn’t impeachment on the table?
May 15th, 2007 at 1:42 pmWell Jerry Falwell is gone… Pat Robertson next?
May 15th, 2007 at 1:43 pmIt should be getting clearer that this country is run by a criminal gang of thieves.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:44 pmWhy isn’t Gonzalez being impeached? (this is not a whiny tone, but a serious question.) Does he have to be convicted of illegal activities to be impeached? If not, I can’t imagine why the Dems aren’t going for this. They have to start walking the walk here.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:44 pmHi Gerald - and very strange that they are stealing your name to post such innocuous crap!
May 15th, 2007 at 1:47 pmMakes you wonder what’s coming up.
Those of us familiar with your voice will be watching out.
# 24 Isn’t me.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:49 pmIt’s a neocon imposter trying to make me look bad.
Get your own name loser
# 26 wasn’t I either.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:50 pmAlthough I agree with the staements.
I have more respect for Bin Laden and the Ayatollahs in Iran than these Christian scumbags.
At least the Muslims have more honor and respect for life!
Good, the Bush illegal wiretapping story is being revived in Congress. Tonight’s PBS Frontline special also ties in well.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:53 pmsluggo sez:
We didn’t elect them. The 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged.
May 15th, 2007 at 1:53 pmHi Gerald - and very strange that they are stealing your name to post such innocuous crap!
Makes you wonder what’s coming up.
Those of us familiar with your voice will be watching out.
Comment by SKdeA
They wont silence me… They can be cowards all they want… I will suck it up and move on… something those cowards dont know how to do…
May 15th, 2007 at 1:54 pmwow ditto
May 15th, 2007 at 1:55 pmTed Olson resigned in July, 2004
May 15th, 2007 at 2:00 pmlater on that evening, Card & Co. stole some money out of an old lady’s purse…
May 15th, 2007 at 2:10 pmThis is only an issue if any of the MSM picks it up.
Good this feels like Nixon and Watergate more and more.
I love it!
May 15th, 2007 at 2:13 pm#34.
And Ted Olson, more than other members of the administration, could certainly have pushed personal justifications for breaking the rule of law if he was so inclined. Remember, his wife, Barbara, was killed on 9/11. Despite that, he still stood up against this administration when they wanted to eviscerate the Constitution with their illegal warrantless wiretapping program under the guise of “fighting terror.”
May 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pmCan we arrest them now?
May 15th, 2007 at 2:18 pmWe already know everything they do is to increase their power, not keep us safe.
I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop for the logest time. And boy, did it drop.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:18 pm#36.
Suspiciously absent from the MSM, which is very discouraging. Maybe they’re just waiting for Drudge to publish it first.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:18 pmWhat idiot called ahead? If you want to illegally obtain CYA authority for your illegal domestic spying, you have to dispense with the social niceties. Why didn’t they just show up and “wish him well”, while getting Ashcroft’s no longer valid signature on that dotted line?
I loved Sen. Specter’s attempt to suggest that the President, Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Card, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Addington were “nice” to Mr. Comey after he stood on principal and told the President, “No”, for perhaps the first time in his Washington life.
They were as nice as a Metro DC cocktail party, where you always believe everything everyone tells you, and no one is really trying to stick a cocktail fork in your back. That’s as credible a distraction as telling the public a Senator never lies about how he raises money or from whom.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:20 pmOlson didn’t stand up for anything. There was no indication that he was among those at DOJ prepared to resign; he just seems to have been a silent witness.
When he stands up to be counted, then you can be proud. So far, he’s just standing for the defense in big time white collar crime and corruption cases, making millions from old friends and enticing tough prosecutors out of their govt jobs with someone else’s money.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:27 pmWow. All of this will make a really good movie one day..
Too bad it’s REAL and not a movie.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:28 pmAnone still wonder why Bush replaced Mr. Ashcroft with Gonzales immediately after the 2004 election?
May 15th, 2007 at 2:32 pmAshcroft has just risen in my esteem. And Gonzo fell even further than I thought possible. This Administration is composed of a bunch of thugs. This is the kind of vicious trick that Maffiosi would pull.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:35 pmI wish these hearings were televised.
Now all we will hear of any news this week will be the eulogies of Jerry Falwell.
May 15th, 2007 at 2:48 pmWake up American. This is how the nazis took over… they tried to legalize their immoral actions. It is a good damn thing that people like Ashcroft have a love for the rule of law and the SPIRIT of the law or else the bushies would have already installed bush as the life long unitary executive.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:21 pmI have no love for Ashcroft, he is another toady in the Bush regime, I do wonder what kind of things Gonzolaz has done since he became AG? I mean if Ashcroft wouldn’t sign it, that is scary.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:46 pmKeep sleeping with your frogs DUHmerikkka…
…and your plague is assured…
May 15th, 2007 at 7:09 pmTHis story is not truy news, because the story came out some time ago….like around the time of confirmation hearings for Gonzales.
However, it is a welcome repeat of fact to show the power mongering nature of Bush and his neocon army.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:53 pmAshcroft almost sounds too good for Regent U. Seems Comey brought out the best in him - the Plame recusal, as well as this refusal.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:10 amCan you people understand that this illegal activity has been par for the course since day 1 of this Administration? Gonzeles has got to go, but the Decider himself looks absolutely shitty on this one. Can’t wait to see how Tony “the snow job” Snow spins this one. Everyday is another scandal. Whoever thought Harding would get bumped back up there in presidential stature??? Sending these guys to Ashcroft in intensive care is absolutely unbelievable. Nothing is out of the realm for these guys, nothing.
May 16th, 2007 at 3:09 pm“We had the president’s direction to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality.
And so we then set out to do that. And we did that.”
Sounds like things worked out in the end. Seriously, get over your Bush hating and knee jerk idiocy about impeachment. Like his father might have said on SNL “Not gonna happen - wouldn’t prudent”.
May 18th, 2007 at 3:21 pm