Heavily redacted notes made by FBI Director Robert Mueller support former
Deputy Attorney General James Comey's account of a dramatic March 10, 2004
hospital bedside confrontation between an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft
and then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
Mueller made the notes Download file available
to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan, who released
them this afternoon.
Comey testified earlier this year that Gonzales and former White House chief
of staff Andrew Card tried to strong-arm an ailing Ashcroft into signing off on
a warrantless surveillance program.
Ashcroft declined to do Gonzales' and Card's bidding and insisted they deal
with Comey, who was acting AG during Ashcroft's illness.
The Justice Department eventually approved the program after certain
undisclosed changes were made.
One interesting element of Mueller's chronology is that it ends with a
meeting in Vice President Dick Cheney's office.
As has often been
remarked upon, Cheney, more than any other VP in modern times at least, has
wielded serious power and the apparent resolution of this conflict in his office
does nothing to change that assessment.
Conyers and another Judiciary Committee member, Alabama Democrat Artur Davis,
who has been one of the brighter lights on the panel, issued this statement
along with Mueller's notes:
Conyers and Davis Announce Further Investigation of Warrantless
Surveillance
Release Notes from FBI Director Concerning Ashcroft Hospital Incident
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, has
provided the House Judiciary Committee with notes requested by the Committee
that he took recounting the circumstances surrounding the dramatic White House
efforts to push then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to recertify a warrantless
surveillance program that had already been rejected by the Justice
Department.
“Director Mueller’s notes and recollections concerning the White House visit
to the Attorney General’s hospital bed confirm an attempt to goad a sick and
heavily medicated Ashcroft to approve the warrantless surveillance program,”
said Conyers.“Particularly disconcerting is the new revelation that the White
House sought Mr. Ashcroft’s authorization for the surveillance program, yet
refused to let him seek the advice he needed on the program.
“Unfortunately, this heavily redacted document raises far more questions than
it answers. We intend to fully investigate this incident and the underlying
subject matter that evoked such widespread distress within the Department and
the FBI. We will be seeking an unredacted copy of Director Mueller’s notes
covering meetings before and after the hospital visit and expect to receive
information from several of the individuals mentioned in the document.”
Director Mueller stated in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee
that he recorded these notes because of the extraordinary nature of this
encounter. The notes confirm the Congressional testimony about the hospital
incident by former Deputy Attorney General, James Comey, who also explained that
many DoJ leadership officials were prepared to resign over the matters discussed
in the hospital incident.
"Director Mueller’s notes leave an unmistakable impression of a White House
determined to do an end-around the constitution," said Rep. Artur Davis.
"In
addition, while too much of
Director Mueller’s submission to the committee is
still incomplete, what he provides us and what he testified to before the
committee is at odds with the benign description the Attorney General provided
under oath.
The committee continues to be interested in the critical question of
whether Alberto Gonzales was truthful rather than misleading when he testified
to the House and Senate."
A copy of Director Mueller’s notes and the letter from the FBI providing them
is attached.
National News 
