Gonzales denies pressuring Ashcroft on spying

updated 12:44 p.m. ET July 24, 2007

WASHINGTON - Alberto Gonzales denied Tuesday that he and former White House chief of staff Andy Card tried during to pressure a hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to recertify President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program.

But lawmakers continued to press for answers from a recalcitrant White House, with one senior Republican raising the prospect of a special prosecutor to probe areas where Bush has blocked Congress.

“The constitutional authority and responsibility for congressional oversight is gone,” said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican. “If that is to happen, the president can run the government as he chooses, answer no questions.”

Glaring at Gonzales just a few feet away at the witness table, Specter declared, “The attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor.” He added later that a special prosecutor would be one of several options to consider months from now, if the Senate cites Bush administration officials with contempt of Congress.

Democrats weren’t likely to stand in the way.

“I don’t trust you,” Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Gonzales, who succeeded Ashcroft as attorney general.

A sick Ashcroft
Gonzales’ credibility remained at issue throughout the proceedings, with senators of both parties growing exasperated and at some points accusing the attorney general of intentionally misleading the committee.

But the story about Gonzales’ famous 2004 hospital visit elicited the most anger from senators because it addressed the concerns of some that the attorney general’s loyalty to the president damaged his judgment and the Justice Department’s independence.

Gonzales said that he and Card had been urged by congressional leaders of both parties to take steps necessary to ensure that the unidentified intelligence program survive a looming deadline for its expiration. To do that, Gonzales said, he needed Ashcroft’s permission.

At the time, Ashcroft was in an intensive care unit recovering from gall bladder surgery and Gonzales was Bush’s White House legal counsel. Ashcroft had transferred the powers of his office to Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

“We went there because we thought it was important for him to know where the congressional leadership was on this,” Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee in his first public explanation of the meeting.

“Clearly if he had been competent and understood the facts and had been inclined to do so, yes we would have asked him,” Gonzales added. “Andy Card and I didn’t press him. We said ’Thank you’ and we left.”

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