Comey Implicates Cheney in Wiretapping Reprisal
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Report
Thursday 07 June 2007
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in written remarks Wednesday, that Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a top Justice Department lawyer after the official called into question the legality of the White House's secret domestic spying program.
In written responses to detailed questions from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Comey said he "understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment" of Patrick Philbin to deputy solicitor general.
Gonzales, Comey said, decided to pursue another candidate for solicitor general when Cheney threatened to intervene.
Philbin was one of the DOJ officials who reviewed the domestic spy program. His classified analysis about the legality of the program led the Justice Department, in March 2004, to refuse the White House's request to re-certify it on grounds that it appeared to be illegal. Philbin threatened to resign when the White House circumvented the DOJ and reauthorized the spy program over the objections of Comey and then Attorney General John Ashcroft.
President Bush secretly authorized the surveillance program after 9/11 to monitor communications between alleged terrorist suspects abroad and US citizens, without first obtaining approval from a special court designated to authorize such activities under guidelines known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The program has come under fire by civil liberties groups and Republican and Democratic lawmakers who said innocent American citizens have been caught up in the wiretaps.
Comey's response to Leahy's queries provides fresh details about Cheney's role in the warrantless wiretapping program. Comey told Leahy that during a March 9, 2004 meeting he attended at the White House, he told Cheney he would not reauthorize the surveillance program which, under federal law, the White House needed to do every 45 days. Ashcroft was hospitalized at the time with pancreatitis and Comey was acting attorney general.
In addition to Cheney, Comey said Alberto Gonzales, who was White House Counsel at the time, President Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Cheney's former counsel David Addington, and others attended the meeting at the White House to discuss the disagreements over the surveillance program. Last year, Gonzales testified there were no "serious disagreements" about the surveillance program.
During the meeting at the White House, Comey said he stated the Justice Department's position, which remains classified, and Cheney vehemently objected to the department's refusal to reauthorize the spy program.
The next day, March 10, 2004, according to Comey's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Comey said he believed President Bush had phoned Ashcroft at George Washington University Hospital, spoke to his wife and told her that he had sent Gonzales, who at the time was White House counsel, and Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card to speak with Ashcroft, who was in intensive care and barely conscious.
During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Comey described in extraordinary detail how he discovered the White House was attempting to override his refusal to reauthorize the surveillance program.
"I was headed home at about 8 o'clock that evening; my security detail was driving me," Comey said.
"And I remember exactly where I was - on Constitution Avenue - and got a call from Attorney General Ashcroft's chief of staff telling me that he had gotten a call from Mrs. Ashcroft from the hospital ... Mrs. Ashcroft reported that the call had come through and that, as a result of that call, Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to see Mr. Ashcroft."
Comey said that he rushed to the hospital to arrive before the White House officials, Philbin, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel who worked with Philbin in reviewing the legality of the wiretapping program.
Gonzales did most of the talking, Comey testified, adding that Gonzales and Card pressed Ashcroft to reauthorize the program in spite of reservations about its legality. Comey said Ashcroft reiterated his concerns and refused to sign the order reauthorizing the program.
Ashcroft "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 - drawn from the hour-long meeting we'd had a week earlier - and in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, 'I'm not the attorney general,'" Comey said, adding that Gonzales and Card left the hospital that evening without a signature from the Justice Department allowing the surveillance program to continue.
The White House illegally operated the program for about three weeks when administration officials could not obtain approval from the Justice Department. Comey told Leahy in response to his written questions that he and Goldsmith, Philbin, Mueller, Ashcroft, and others were prepared to resign following the episode at Ashcroft's bedside.
Following Comey's testimony before the Senate committee last month Gonzales's spokesman said Gonzales was unaware that Comey had been appointed acting attorney general. But Comey said that isn't true.
In response to a separate set of written questions, Representative Linda Sanchez (D-California), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, sent Comey about the incident that took place in Ashcroft's hospital room, Comey told Sanchez that the White House knew full well that he was acting attorney general when Gonzales and Card attempted to get Ashcroft to approve the surveillance program Comey told Sanchez that David Ayres, Ashcroft's chief of staff "handled the notifications" and that there was media coverage related to his appointment as acting attorney general.
Moreover, Comey told Sanchez that Ashcroft's wife was in the hospital room when details about the classified surveillance program were being discussed and that the hospital room was likely not cleared to discuss top-secret information. However, Comey said he was not sure if Gonzales or Card disclosed classified information that evening.
"I do not recall whether Mr. Gonzales mentioned any aspects of the matter that would be considered classified, including the name of the program - which was itself classified as I recall - when addressing Mr. Ashcroft," Comey said.
"Did all individuals present in the hospital room or with access to the hospital room have the appropriate security clearance to learn of the matter discussed in the room?" Sanchez asked Comey.
"I do not know, but assume Mrs. Ashcroft did not have appropriate clearances," Comey responded.
Bingo! Great job, Jason!
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