Pulling the Plug: Alberto Gonzales browbeats the critically ill.

[seafan]

Pulling the Plug: Alberto Gonzales browbeats the critically ill.

By Dahlia Lithwick
Tuesday, May 15, 2007



James Comey

.....

Comey prefaces his story by explaining his "hesitation" about telling it. "I have thought a lot over the last three years how I would testify if I were ever asked about this," he says. Then he explains that by spring 2004, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel had conducted an "intensive re-evaluation" of the NSA surveillance program and had determined that DoJ "did not have the ability to certify its legality." Ashcroft and Comey agreed with this assessment that the program as it existed was illegal. Immediately after discussing this with Comey, Ashcroft went into the ICU at George Washington Hospital with acute pancreatitis, and Comey became acting attorney general.

.....

Says Comey today: "Over that week I communicated that as acting attorney general that I would not certify legality. The next day, on Wednesday, March 10, 2004, I was headed home. My security detail was driving me." Comey got a call from Ashcroft's chief of staff, who said that although Mrs. Ashcroft had "banned all visitors" from her husband's room in the ICU, where he was in his sixth day, a call had just come to his hospital room indicating that Gonzales, then White House counsel, and Andy Card, then Bush's chief of staff, were on their way. (Comey seemed to recall that the call to Ashcroft came from the president; he says it certainly came from the White House.)

Comey made frantic calls to his own chief of staff and to Robert Mueller, then FBI director, while he raced to the hospital, sirens blasting. He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital to get to Ashcroft's room before Gonzales and Card did.

"I was concerned about how ill he was," Comey explains, afraid "that they were trying to overrule me." He paints a picture of "a darkened room, and Mrs. Ashcroft standing beside the bed." Comey says he "tried to orient" Ashcroft, but that it "wasn't clear I'd succeeded." Comey, a la Harrison Ford, then dialed up Mueller on the phone to make sure he wouldn't be removed from the room. "I sat in an armchair by his bed, and Mrs. Ashcroft stood by the bed holding his arm," he recounts. His bullpen, in case he needed help, included Jack Goldsmith, an assistant attorney general, and Patrick Philbin, an associate deputy attorney general. In the musical version, everyone would be snapping their fingers.

"Within minutes," Gonzales and Card came barreling in, carrying an envelope. Inside was the reauthorization for the surveillance program, which they wanted Ashcroft to sign. Ashcroft raised his wan head from the pillow and clearly said he wouldn't, adding, "I am not the attorney general. That's the attorney general." He pointed to Comey.

Gonzales and Card left. Comey got an urgent call from a "very upset" Card, demanding an immediate meeting at the White House. Comey said he was so upset by what he'd just seen that he wouldn't meet with Card without a witness. ..... Card said he didn't know what Comey was so steamed about. He and Gonzales had just "been there to wish (Ashcroft) well."

Comey disagreed. "I had witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man," he testifies.

The next day, March 11, the program was "reauthorized without certification by the Department of Justice," Comey said, and "I prepared a letter intending to resign." It was the morning of the Madrid train bombing; but still, "I couldn't stay if the White House was engaging in conduct that had no legal basis."

Comey testifies that there was something of a line to resign that day: Mueller; then Comey's chief of staff; and then Ashcroft's chief of staff—who asked only that Comey wait until "Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me."

.....

But Comey gets one more chance to launch his main zinger: "They went ahead and reauthorized the program without my signature." And that's about all he needs to say. The White House went ahead and reauthorized a controversial, presidential-power-grabbing program deemed illegal by the Justice Department, after trying to extract permission from a critically sick John Ashcroft who didn't quite know what day it was.

Today's revelations shouldn't be much of a surprise. Gonzales had nothing but contempt for the Justice Department back when he worked for the president, and he has nothing but contempt for the Justice Department now that he, well, still works for the president. Nevertheless, if this whole sordid U.S. attorney scandal wanted for a metaphor, it need search no longer. Here's the Rule of Law lying in critical condition in its hospital bed, while the man now charged with its stewardship runs roughshod over it, all in the name of expanding presidential power.

[magellan]

1. Sigh. Is it impeachment *yet*?

Let me know when they've done enough to justify Pelosi and Reid putting it back on the table. I don't know about anyone else, but I've had it with reading crap like this and watching these criminals continue to waltz around free as birds.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. So, Slate is the messenger of Comey's story.

:puke: MKJ

[babylonsister]

7. Tell me about Slate, BHP. I refer to that site often. nt

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. I misread and misspoke. I'm not familiar with Slate and just saw Comey's

statements, which don't ring true, although I'm sure there's an element of honesty in his recounting of this incident.

I'll need to bookmark the site, I'm always on the lookout for credible news sources. MKJ

[Sydnie]

3. That is a great bedtime story

just what I needed to read. I will have happy dreams tonight ... I am anticipating Gonzo, in Orange, getting two vegetables and a fruit served to him everyday, hood optional. :)

[babylonsister]

4. Ashcroft needs to testify, #1, and Tony Snow needs to STFU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3265502&mesg_id=3265502

[LibertyorDeath]

5. Wow what a bunch of twisted criminal fucks....

"Within minutes," Gonzales and Card came barreling in, carrying an envelope. Inside was the reauthorization for the surveillance program, which they wanted Ashcroft to sign. Ashcroft raised his wan head from the pillow and clearly said he wouldn't, adding, "I am not the attorney general. That's the attorney general." He pointed to Comey.

[jannyk]

6. Forget Falwell - Concentrate, Focus and Read This!!! K&R