White House Wiki Watch

Much of the debate over warrantless wiretapping is abstract. But this story is Hollywood-movie vivid.

It was the night of March 10, 2004, according to Comey, when two top White House aides -- then counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-chief of staff Andrew Card -- arrived uninvited at the hospital bedside of the then-attorney general, in his George Washington hospital room, hoping he would sign an authorization for the controversial program.

But these heavily-redacted notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller, who arrived at the scene just moments after Gonzales and Card left support Comey's belief that Ashcroft was in no condition to be signing anything.

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was 'feeble,' 'barely articulate' and 'stressed' moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that were released yesterday. . . .

"Mueller's description of Ashcroft's physical condition that night contrasts with testimony last month from Gonzales, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Ashcroft was 'lucid' and 'did most of the talking' during the brief visit. It also confirms an account of the episode by former deputy attorney general James B. Comey, who said Ashcroft told the two men he was not well enough to make decisions in the hospital.

"'Saw AG,' Mueller writes in his notes for 8:10 p.m. on March 10, 2004, only minutes after Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. had visited Ashcroft. 'Janet Ashcroft in the room. AG in chair; is feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed.' . . .

"In his notes, Mueller recounts Comey's statement that Ashcroft complained to Gonzales and Card at the hospital about being 'barred' from obtaining 'the advice he needed' about the NSA program because of 'strict compartmentalization rules' set by the White House. Although Ashcroft, as attorney general, had been fully briefed about the program, many of his senior legal advisers were not allowed to know about it, officials said."

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that Mueller's notes "confirm an attempt to goad a sick and heavily medicated Ashcroft to approve the warrantless surveillance program. 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."

David Johnston and Scott Shane write in the New York Times: "In providing corroboration for Mr. Comey's version of events, Mr. Mueller's typewritten entries served to rebut the suggestion of some Bush administration officials who have privately dismissed Mr. Comey's account of the hospital standoff as an overwrought and one-sided description."

For background, here is my May 16 column, High Drama -- and High Crimes?

Here is Comey's May 15 testimony about what he did after Ashcroft's wife called to tell him that White House was sending someone to the hospital:

"COMEY: I was concerned that, given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that. . . .