Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Nearly 30 DOJ Officials Threatened To Bail Out After Ashcroft Hospital Visit

Wow!

Newsweek:
So consider these scenes from March 2004, described by two former top Justice officials who, like other ex-officials interviewed by NEWSWEEK, did not wish to be identified discussing sensitive internal matters. Attorney General John Ashcroft is really sick. About to give a press conference in Virginia, he is stricken with pain so severe he has to lie down on the floor. Taken to the hospital for an emergency gallbladder operation, he hallucinates under medication as he lies, near death, in intensive care. On the night after his operation, he has two visitors: White House chief of staff Andrew Card and presidential counsel Alberto Gonzales. As described in public testimony, they want Ashcroft to sign a document authorizing the government's top-secret eavesdropping program to go on. The attorney general, who thinks the program is illegal, refuses.
Back at the Justice Department, there is an equally extraordinary scene. Appalled by the White House's heavy-handed attempt to coerce the gravely ill attorney general, virtually the entire top leadership of the Justice Department is threatening to resign.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure that Card and Gonzales did not act alone in the slimeist of moves, that was just unconcionable for them to see him for what they did when they did.

SP Biloxi said...

Gonzo is good as gone from his job soon. And Card is certain not out of the woods in crimes. Waxman and the enite Congresional group needs to look into the entire WHIG group (which included Card) and their Iraq propaganda which ties into Wilson's criticism on the Iraq intelligence of the war.