Gonzales denies pressuring Ashcroft on spying

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Conflicting version of events
Gonzales’ version conflicts with Comey’s.

“I was angry,” Comey testified in May, releasing details of the meeting for the first time. “I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general.”

Comey said that he and Ashcroft had decided against recertifying the classified program. There were concerns at the time about whether the domestic eavesdropping program violated civil liberties. The program was slated to expire on March 11, 2004, if not recertified by Justice.

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But Gonzales said Tuesday that he did not know whether Ashcroft had made a decision or whether he had been aware of Comey’s objections. Furthermore, he said, House and Senate leaders of both parties urged him during an emergency meeting earlier on March 10 to make sure the program survived the deadline.

“How can you get approval from Ashcroft for anything when he’s under sedation and incapacitated? For anything?” Specter asked.

“We would not have sought nor did we intend to seek to get any approval from General Ashcroft if in fact he was not fully competent to make that decision,” Gonzales replied.

“I’m not making any progress here,” Specter snapped.

Intentionally misleading?
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., grilled Gonzales on whether the attorney general provided misleading statements when he said there had been no dissenting views in the administration on the domestic surveillance program that then operated without warrants.

“How can you say you haven’t deceived the committee?” Schumer asked.

Gonzales stood by his comments.

“The disagreement that occurred, and the reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities,” Gonzales said, refusing to say what the other program might be.

“How can you say you should stay on as attorney general when we go through exercises like this?” Schumer asked. “You want to be attorney general, you should be able to clarify it yourself.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., told Gonzales that he believes the attorney general intentionally misled the committee about which program caused dissent among administration officials.

Gonzales said he couldn’t say in an unclassified setting, but offered to go into more detail in private meetings with senators.