Comey Obliterates Gonzo

I'm too depressed to talk about anything right now.

That being said I haven't followed this closely enough to form an opinion. From what I've heard, though, Gonzo seems fairly incompetent.

 

I feel the same way. Talking some anyway.

Gonzo seems unfairly incompetent. That's the nicest thing I could say about him, and he doesn't deserve it. The guy should be behind bars on general principals. Or for lying under oath before Congress. Whatever.




D&D. ROCKETS DEPRESSION.

 

Interesting. I'm not familiar with a situation where a cabinet officer was impeached since they aren't Constitutional officers. Just wondering what is the means they go about it. Does the Senate un-confirm them?

 

Interesting. I didn't know that Congress had impeached Cabinet officers before.

 

Well we can add "coward" to Gonzo's resume. What a slimball. One day after his Deputy AG resigns...

------------------

Gonzales Throws McNulty Under The Bus

During an event this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Alberto Gonzales launched an unabashed and shameless finger-pointing campaign at outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, blaming him for the U.S. attorney scandal.

Minimizing his own role, Gonzales said McNulty has “most of the operational authority and decisions” at the Department of Justice.

Despite having delegated the task of putting together the list of fired U.S. attorneys to his chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Gonzales claimed that “the one person I would care about would be the views of the Deputy Attorney General. … At end of the day, my understanding was that Mr. Sampson’s recommendations reflected the consensus view of the senior leadership of the Department — in particular the Deputy Attorney General.”

When asked why two inexperienced staffers — Sampson and Monica Goodling — were given prominent roles in the firing process, Gonzales responded, “Well again you have to remember at the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the Deputy Attorney General. He signed off on the names and he would know better than anyone else.”

McNulty was “largely left out of the loop when Gonzales” in early 2005 ordered his chief of staff to identify top prosecutors for dismissal. McNulty has said he was not aware of the plans until last fall, “two months before the firings were executed.” McNulty told one fired attorney that he’d had only “limited input” in the firing process, but he did attend at least one meeting with Karl Rove to discuss the firings.

McNulty may soon have an opportunity to present a high-profile rebuttal to Gonzales. House Judiciary Committee John Conyers has said, “As we press on with our investigation, we look forward to [McNulty’s] cooperation.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/15/gonzales-mcnulty/#comments

 

pretty pathetic by Gonzo.
Throwing this guy under the bus isn't the smartest move. He will probably be talking in the near future

 

WOW!!!

More Comey testimony today. And here I am almost wishing for the good ole' days of Ashcroft being AG.


almost --


Comey Details White House Attempt to Force Approval of Secret Program

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey detailed the desperate late night efforts by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew Card to get the Justice Department to approve a secret program -- the warrantless wiretapping program.

According to Comey's testimony this morning, only when faced with resignations by a number of Justice Department officials including Comey, his chief of staff, Ashcroft's chief of staff, Ashcroft himself and possibly Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, did the White House agree to make changes to the program that would satisfy the requirements of the Justice Department to sign off on it (Comey refused to name the program, but it's apparent from the context and prior reports that this was the warrantless wiretapping program).

The events took place in March of 2004, when the program was in need of renewal by the Justice Department. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft fell ill and was hospitalized, Comey became the acting-Attorney General.

The deadline for the Justice Department's providing its sign-off of the program was March 11th (the program required reauthorization every 45 days). On that day, Comey, then the acting AG, informed the White House that he "would not certify the legality" of the program.

According to Comey, he was on his way home when he got a call from Ashcroft's wife that Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card were on their way to the hospital*. Comey then rushed to the hospital (sirens blaring) to beat them there and thwart "an effort to overrule me."

After Comey arrived at the hospital with a group of senior Justice Department officials, Gonzales and Card arrived and walked up to Ashcroft, who was lying barely conscious on his hospital bed. "Gonzales began to explain why he was there, to seek his approval for a matter," Comey testified. But Ashcroft rebuffed Gonzales and told him that Comey was the attorney general now. "The two men turned and walked from the room," said Comey.

A "very upset" Andrew Card then called Comey and demanded that he come to the White House for a meeting at 11 PM that night.

After meeting with Justice Department officials at the Justice Deaprtment, Comey went to the White House with Ted Olson, then the Solicitor General to the White House. He brought Olson along, Comey said, because he wanted a witness for the meeting.

But Card didn't let Olson enter and Comey had a private discussion with Card. This discussion, Comey testified, was much "calmer." According to Comey, Card was concerned about reports that there were to be large numbers of resignations at Justice Department. Gonzales entered with Olson and the four had an apparently not very fruitful discussion.

The program was reauthorized without the signature of the attorney general. Because of that, Comey said, he prepared a letter of resignation. "I believed that I couldn't stay if the administration was going to engage in conduct that Justice Department said had no legal basis."

At this point, according to Comey, a number of senior Justice Department officials, including Ashcroft, were prepared to resign.

When Comey went in on that Friday, March 12th to give the White House its customary morning briefing, Comey said that the president pulled him aside. They had a 15 minute private meeting, the content of which Comey would not divulge. But Comey did suggest at the conclusion of that conversation that the president speak with FBI Director Mueller. And so that meeting followed. Following that meeting, Comey said that Mueller brought word that the Justice Department was to do whatever was "necessary" to make the program into one that the Justice Department could sign off on.

Comey said that it took two to three weeks for the Justice Department to do the analysis necessary to have the program approved. During that time, the program went on without Justice Department approval. But following the Justice Department's suggested changes, the Justice Department (either Ashcroft or Comey) did sign off on the program.

More on this soon.

*Update: A commenter below rightly points out that, according to Comey, the call to Ashcroft's wife that Gonzales and Card were on their way to the hospital came from the president himself.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003221.php

 

Here is another, more detailed account of what happened. It's chilling, and highlights, as if it needed highlighting, just how sick, immoral and disgusting the Bush Administration is, with those closest to the President being the worst.


May 15, 2007

Gonzales Pressed Ailing Ashcroft on Spy Plan, Aide Says

By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, May 15 — On the night of March 10, 2004, a high-ranking Justice Department official rushed to a Washington hospital to prevent two White House aides from taking advantage of the critically ill Attorney General, John Ashcroft, the official testified today.

One of those aides was Alberto R. Gonzales, who was then White House counsel and eventually succeeded Mr. Ashcroft as Attorney General.

“I was very upset,” said James B. Comey, who was deputy Attorney General at the time, in his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I was angry. 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 because they had been transferred to me.”

The hospital visit by Mr. Gonzales and Andrew H. Card Jr., who was then White House chief of staff, has been disclosed before, but never in such dramatic, personal detail. Mr. Comey’s account offered a rare and titillating glimpse of a Washington power struggle, complete with a late-night showdown in the White House after a dramatic encounter in a darkened hospital room — in short, elements of a potboiler paperback novel.

Mr. Comey related his story to the committee, which is investigating various aspects of Mr. Gonzales’s tenure as Attorney General, including the recent dismissals of eight United States attorneys and allegations that applicants for traditionally nonpartisan career prosecutor jobs were screened for political loyalties.

Although Mr. Comey declined to say specifically what the business was that sent Mr. Gonzales to the bedside of Mr. Ashcroft in George Washington University Hospital, where he lay critically ill with pancreatitis, it was clear that the subject was the National Security Agency’s secret domestic surveillance program. The signature of Mr. Ashcroft or his surrogate was needed by the next day, March 11, in order to renew the program, which was still secret at that time.

Since the existence of the program was disclosed by The New York Times in late 2005, it has been reported that it was the subject of a tense debate at the highest levels of the Bush administration, with some officials concerned that the program was not adequately supervised, and others having more fundamental worries.

Around the time of the hospital incident, the White House suspended parts of the program for several months and imposed tougher requirements on the National Security Agency on how the program was to be used.Mr. Comey told the committee today that when Mr. Ashcroft was ill and he was in charge at the Justice Department, he told the White House he would not certify the program again “as to its legality.”

On the night of March 10, as he was being driven home by his security detail, he got a telephone call from Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff, who had just been contacted by Mr. Ashcroft’s wife, Janet.

Although Mrs. Ashcroft had banned visitors and telephone calls to her husband’s hospital room, she had just gotten a call from the White House telling her that Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to see her husband, Mr. Comey testified. “I have some recollection that the call was from the president himself, but I don’t know that for sure,” Mr. Comey said.

He said his security detail then sped him to the hospital with sirens blaring and emergency lights flashing, while he telephoned the director of the F.B.I., Robert S. Mueller 3d, from the car. Mr. Mueller shared his sense of urgency: “He said, ‘I’ll meet you at the hospital right now,’ ” Mr. Comey testified.

When he got to the hospital, Mr. Comey recalled, “I got out of the car and ran up — literally, ran up the stairs with my security detail.”

“What was your concern?” asked Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who was the chairman of today’s committee session.

“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,” Mr. Comey replied.

Mr. Comey recalled arriving at the darkened hospital room, where Mr. Ashcroft seemed hardly aware of his surroundings. For a time, only Mr. Comey and the Ashcrofts were in the room. Meanwhile, Mr. Mueller, who had not yet arrived, told Mr. Comey’s security detail by phone “not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances,” Mr. Comey testified.

Minutes later, he said, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card entered the room, with Mr. Gonzales carrying an envelope. “And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there, to seek his approval for a matter,” Mr. Comey related.

“And Attorney General Ashcroft then stunned me,” Mr. Comey went on: He raised his head from the pillow, reiterated his objections to the program, then lay back down, pointing to Mr. Comey as the attorney general during his illness.

When Mr. Mueller arrived, “he had a brief, a memorable brief exchange with the attorney general, and then we went outside in the hallway,” Mr. Comey said.

Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card departed, but after a while, Mr. Card telephoned Mr. Comey and “demanded that I come to the White House immediately,” Mr. Comey said.

“After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness, and I intend that witness to be the solicitor general of the United States,” Mr. Comey said he told Mr. Card.

Whereupon, Mr. Comey said, he contacted the solicitor general, Theodore B. Olson, who was at a dinner party, and arranged to go with him to the White House. At first, Mr. Card would not let Mr. Olson enter his office, Mr. Comey said; he then had a considerably calmer private chat with Mr. Card for a quarter-hour, after which Mr. Olson entered the room and took part in the conversation.

“Mr. Card was concerned that he had heard reports that there were to be a large number of resignations at the Department of Justice,” Mr. Comey recalled.

Mr. Ashcroft had such serious reservations about the program that he considered resigning then, Mr. Comey testified. Instead, he stayed on until November 2004.

Mr. Mueller, too, considered resigning, Mr. Comey said.

“You had conversations with him about it?” Mr. Schumer asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Comey replied.The surveillance program was reauthorized on March 11, 2004, without a signature from the Department of Justice “attesting to its legality,” Mr. Comey testified.

Mr. Comey said today that he intended to resign the next day, March 12. But terrorists carried out deadly train bombings in Madrid on March 11, prompting him to put his plans on hold; he remained on the job until August 2005.
Even before Mr. Comey’s testimony, Mr. Schumer and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel’s ranking Republican, reiterated their low opinion of Mr. Gonzales as attorney general.

“He’s presided over a Justice Department where being a, quote, loyal Bushie seems to be more important than being a seasoned professional, where what the White House wants is more important than what the law requires or what prudence dictates,” Mr. Schumer said.

“It is the decision of Mr. Gonzales as to whether he stays or goes, but it is hard to see how the Department of Justice can function and perform its important duties with Mr. Gonzales remaining where he is,” Mr Specter said. “And beyond Mr. Gonzales’ decision, it’s a matter for the president as to whether the president will retain the attorney general or not.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15cnd-attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin



D&D. Replicant City.

 

No it's not.

I'd have sympathy for the cripple or sick dog.

 

Greg Palast weighs in:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/14/1426254

snippet:

 

I had no idea that Tom Cruise's character in A Few Good Men was based on David Iglesias. Fascinating.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/14/1426254

Perhaps the most well known of these US attorneys is ousted New Mexico prosecutor David Iglesias. His case has been at the center of the political firestorm. Investigative journalist Greg Palast has been closely following this story. He files this report.

KEVIN BACON: Your honor, I’d like to ask for a recess.

TOM CRUISE: I’d like an answer to the question, Judge.

J.A. PRESTON: The court will wait for an answer.

GREG PALAST: This past December 7 was not the first time United States prosecutor David Iglesias had been brutally cut loose. In the 1992 film A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise plays David Iglesias, the true story of the young military defense lawyer fighting to uncover the truth.

TOM CRUISE: I want the truth!

JACK NICHOLSON: You can't handle the truth!

 

lol. I always hate the way Democracy Now does that kind of stupid **** and than actually puts it into the transcript. Totally irritating.

 

Comey’s Revelations Suggest Either Gonzales Is Lying Or More Spying Programs Exist

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faces new legal problems after yesterday’s testimony of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

In a 2006 hearing, when Sen. Chuck Schumer asked him about Comey’s objections to the NSA wiretapping program, Gonzales denied there was any “serious disagreement about the program“:

Gonzales’ answer suggests two possibilities.

1)Comey’s objections apply to the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that Gonzales was discussing. If so, then Gonzales quite likely made serious mis-statements under oath. And Gonzales was deeply and personally involved in the meeting at Ashcroft’s hospital bed, so he won’t be able to claim “I forgot.”

2) Perhaps Comey’s objections applied to a different domestic spying program. That has a big advantage for Gonzales — he wasn’t lying under oath. But then we would have senior Justice officials confirming that other “programs” exist for domestic spying, something the Administration has never previously stated.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/16/swire-on-gonzales/

 

This testimony by Comey is incredible. Sirens wailing. Racing through DC streets to Ashcroft's sickbed. Calls to the FBI director. FBI agents ordered to insure Comey wasn't removed from Ashcroft's hospital room. Heated confrontation with Gonzales and Card. Damn. This testimony should be the lead story of every news show and newspaper in the country.



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Three other things are important to note, as well:

1. The President personally tried to convince Comey to change his judgment, even after DOJ had gone to such lengths to repudiate OLC's prior legal advice.

2. The President signed the directive himself, and allowed the NSA program to continue for at least two weeks, even though DOJ had concluded that it was legally indefensible, i.e., that it violated a criminal statute. (This is the big story that few are focusing on.)

3. Yes, the President eventually agreed that the program could be "modified" if that's what it would take to get DOJ buy-in. But that isn't a case of "siding" with DOJ over the VP and White House Counsel. He really had no choice, because the alternative was a full-scale resignation of the entire top tier of the Justice Department. Imagine how that would have played in Congress and the public --they're doing something so egregiously and transparently unlawful that even John Ashcroft resigned over it! It most certainly would have meant the end (and the revelation) of the NSA program, at the very least -- and it might even have been viewed as the equivalent of the Saturday Night Massacre. So really, the President was backed into a corner -- Ashcroft, Comey and Goldsmith did the right thing under enormous pressure, and they forced the President and the Vice President to back down.

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-was-presidents-role.html

 

More --

It's The Program, Stupid

By Paul Kiel - May 16, 2007, 1:36 PM

We'll have video of James Comey's testimony yesterday soon over at TPM (Update: Here it is.), but until then, a TPM Reader writes in to provide some context:

 

Hagel demands Gonzales' resignation
By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Hagel on Wednesday became the latest Republican to call for Alberto Gonzales' resignation, saying revelations about a sick bed visit to his predecessor has undermined his moral authority to lead the Justice Department.

Citing dramatic testimony a day earlier that revealed that Gonzales, then the White House legal counsel, tried to undermine the department he now leads, Hagel demanded the attorney general's resignation.

"The American people deserve an attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of our country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question," Hagel, R-Neb., said in a statement. "Attorney General Gonzales can no longer meet this standard. He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead."

President Bush continued to stand by his longtime friend and adviser. Asked about Hagel's comment on Gonzales' moral authority, press secretary Tony Snow replied: "We disagree, and the president supports the attorney general."

Hagel has hinted at seeking his party's presidential nomination but has not officially declared his candidacy. Another GOP contender, Sen. John McCain, last month called for Gonzales' resignation.

Hagel's harsh words came in response to testimony Tuesday by James Comey, deputy to Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft. Comey said that Gonzales pressured an ailing Ashcroft to approve the legality of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. Ashcroft — critically ill with pancreatitis at the time — rebuffed Gonzales, Comey recalled.

The White House went ahead with the program without Justice Department approval, Comey said. Faced with the resignations of Comey, Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Bush relented and changed the program to address Justice's concerns.

The story plus the dustup over the firings of at least eight federal prosecutors inspired Hagel to demand that Gonzales step down.

"Alberto Gonzales should resign now," Hagel said.

The White House has not confirmed nor refuted Comey's account, but Snow described it as only one view of the events.

"Jim Comey gave his side of what transpired. The president still has full confidence in Alberto Gonzales," Snow said.

Unhappy with Gonzales, most Republicans have nonetheless largely refrained from calling for his resignation. Republicans who have called for Gonzales' ouster include Sens. John Sununu, R-N.H., Tom Coburn, R-Okla. and House GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, R-Fla.

Democrats sought to reignite the discussion of Gonzales' fitness for office by elicting — then pouncing on — the details of that night in March, 2004. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., cast the incident as an example of what he said was the attorney general's habit of putting Bush's interests ahead of virtually all else. Otherwise, the story had little connection to the Democrats' stated topic for the hearing, the ousters of eight federal prosecutors over the winter.

At issue in 2004 was Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program, which Comey described as so questionable that Ashcroft refused for a time to reauthorize it as required in March, 2004.

Senior government officials had expressed concerns about whether the National Security Agency, which administered the program, had the proper oversight in place. Other concerns included whether any president possessed the legal and constitutional authority to authorize the program as it operated at the time.

Days before the program's required recertification in March, 2004, Ashcroft suddenly fell ill enough with pancreatitis that he transferred the powers of the attorney general to Comey. Acting Attorney General Comey, too, refused to certify the program's legality.

On March 10, Gonzales, then White House Counsel, and Bush's former chief of staff, Andy Card, took the matter to Ashcroft as he lay in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital. Tipped to their impending visit, Comey raced there with the sirens of his security detail blaring, he told the committee Tuesday.

Comey arrived at Ashcroft's bedside moments before the president's aides walked in, Gonzales holding the presidential order of recertification.

Ashcroft rebuffed them, pointing out that Comey held the powers of the attorney general at that moment. Gonzales and Card left the room without acknowledging Comey.

Card later demanded that Comey come to the White House. Comey said he demanded a witness accompany him after the conduct he'd seen at Ashcroft's bed side.

Card "replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well,'" Comey recalled.

The White House certified the legality of the program without the Justice Department's signoff, causing Comey, Ashcroft and Mueller to prepare their resignations, Comey said. Faced with a mass walkout at the helm of Justice, Bush relented.

A day after the incident at Ashcroft's hospital bedside, Bush ordered changes to the program to accommodate the department's concerns. Ashcroft signed the presidential order to recertify the program about three weeks later.

The FBI and the Justice Department refused to comment on the meeting, but defended the eavesdropping program as essential to the war on terrorism. Spokesmen for Ashcroft and Mueller refused requests for comment.