Monday, July 13, 2009
President George W. Bush’s insistence on continuing the warrantless wiretapping program in 2004 almost forced the resignations of some of top law enforcement officials in the administration, according to federal inspectors of the government’s top intelligence agencies. The report by the inspectors general of the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Agency and other offices reveals that multiple officials in the Department of Justice, including Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, were seriously considering stepping down because Bush was adamant about maintaining the domestic spying program without approval from the Justice Department.
In addition to resignation threats from Ashcroft, whose hospitalization prompted the infamous March 10, 2004, visit by the White House’s Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card to try to force Ashcroft to reauthorize the program, Ashcroft’s chief of staff David Ayers, Deputy Attorney General James Comey and Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith all talked about quitting. In notes turned over to the inspectors general, Goldsmith cited the “shoddiness” of the legal justification for the wiretapping, along with the program’s “over-secrecy” and “shameful” effort by Gonzales and Card to force Ashcroft to sign off as his reasons for possibly resigning.
Mueller said he was inclined to withdraw the FBI from participation in the surveillance program, and if President Bush had insisted on the bureau’s continued involvement, he would have stepped down as director.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
'Inappropriate' Secrecy Hurt Surveillance Effort, Report Says (by Carrie Johnson and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)
U.S. Wiretapping of Limited Value, Officials Report (by Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, New York Times)
Unclassified Report on the President’s Surveillance Program (Offices of Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence) (PDF)
Comments