Revisiting A Famous Hospital Confrontation
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Just what was it that, in 2004, nearly caused the director of the FBI and the deputy attorney general to resign, and which culminated in a dramatic (and now dramatized) hospital-room confrontation between senior Justice Department officials and then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales?
The crisis in March 2004 stemmed from a review of the program by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which raised "concerns as to our ability to certify its legality," according to Comey's testimony. Ashcroft was briefed on the findings on March 4 and agreed that changes needed to be made, Comey said.
That afternoon, Ashcroft was rushed to George Washington University Hospital with a severe case of gallstone pancreatitis; on March 9, his gallbladder was removed. The standoff between Justice and White House officials came the next night, after Comey had refused to certify the surveillance program on the eve of its 45-day reauthorization deadline, he testified.
"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 do that," Comey said, saying that Ashcroft "seemed pretty bad off."
Mueller, who also was rushing to the hospital, spoke by phone to the security detail protecting Ashcroft, ordering them not to allow Card or Gonzales to eject Comey from the hospital room.
Card and Gonzales arrived a few minutes later, with Gonzales holding an envelope that contained the executive order for the program. Comey said that, after listening to their entreaties, Ashcroft rebuffed the White House aides.
"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," Comey said. Then, he said, Ashcroft added: "But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general. There is the attorney general," and pointed at Comey, who was appointed acting attorney general when Ashcroft fell ill.
"What you think isn't what happened," the official told us, unprompted. "Not about the meta-data?" one of us asked. "No, not about the meta-data. It was about something else. I can't tell you what it was. I don't think it's been in the public domain yet. If you show me a TOP SECRET clearance, I could go out in the woods somewhere and tell you, but I can't."