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John Ashcroft, civil libertarian
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The tale told Tuesday by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey to the Senate Judiciary Committee almost sounds like a movie script.
Beyond the drama, however, it offers important insights into former Attorney General John Ashcroft, current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush administration in general.
A bit of background: The National Security Agency shortly after 9/11 began a program of surveillance, including of U.S. residents, without first obtaining warrants. Many, including us, believe it violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Apparently, by March 2004 the Justice Department, then under Ashcroft, had decided so as well, and had determined not to sign off on the periodic reauthorization of the program unless certain changes were made.
Ashcroft then had a pancreatitis attack and was hospitalized. Comey became acting attorney general and told Ashcroft, who agreed, that he wouldn’t sign the reauthorization paper. Then Comey got word that then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card and Gonzales, at the time the White House counsel, were on the way to Ashcroft’s hospital room (despite Ashcroft’s wife’s attempt to ban visitors) to get him to sign. So Comey raced over, got there first, and informed Ashcroft of what was about to happen. When Card and Gonzales showed up, Ashcroft had just enough strength to tell them he wouldn’t sign off.
The White House reauthorized the program, anyway. Then President Bush intervened, agreed to the changes that the Justice Department wanted, and some weeks later the program was reauthorized and legal.
The insights? Ashcroft, along with Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other high Justice Department officials, were prepared to resign over the incident, which shows admirable devotion to principle. But Card and Gonzales were prepared “to take advantage of a very sick man,” as Comey put it, to skirt the Justice Department’s interpretation of the surveillance law.
Bottom line? John Ashcroft, of all people, turned out to be more of a civil libertarian than the Bush administration wanted. That doesn’t speak well of the administration, or of Gonzales.
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