Christian Leftist

FBI Director Robert Mueller’s heavily redacted notes that the House Judiciary Committee released on Thursday confirm that Andrew J. Card Jr. and Alberto Gonzales put enormous pressure on then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to approve an extension on controversial warrantless wiretapping by the NSA within the U.S.

The Bush administration has denied that Gonzales’s and Card’s talks with Ashcroft right after his gall bladder surgery were about the warrantless surveillance, but James Comey, who was acting as Attorney General while Ashcroft remained hospitalized, said that he “thought he saw [the two men] trying to take advantage of a sick man] when they pressed Ashcroft to sign the extension. Comey had already refused, saying that parts of the bill were illegal, so Gonzales and Card, then the White House’s Chief of Staff, headed over to Ashcroft’s bedside to convince him to sign the bill, thinking that his signature would override Comey’s temporary power. It is clear from his restraint during testimony that Comey was livid about the event, and the scandal nearly caused a wave of resignations at the Department of Justice.

Apparently, Robert Mueller arrived after Card and Gonzales had left, and Comey related the incident to him in front of Ashcroft. Mueller’s notes also describe frequent visits by Vice President Dick Cheney to Ashcroft’s bedisde prior to the showdown with Comey, indicating that Cheny may have played a significant role in the move to have Ashcroft’s office authorize the legislation.

I want to make it clear that I am not certain whether this warrantless wiretapping extension was a bill, and act, etc., so I just used the words bill and legislation to represent the legal action presented in the proposal.

You can read more about the chain of events in these NY Times articles:

Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over U.S. Spying [older NYT article, so read it while you still can]
FBI Chief’s Notes Detail Ashcroft Visit [the AP report]
Notes Detail Pressure on Ashcroft Over Spying [NYT article from today]