Did Alberto Gonzales fabricate notes key to Bush decision on surveillance?

The story has been often told, of how Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was in a hospital bed, recovering from emergency surgery to remove his gallbladder, when White House chief of staff Andy Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales showed up in his intensive care unit.

It was not a social visit.

The two asked the attorney general to certify that the president's warrantless wiretapping was legal, even though Justice Department lawyers said otherwise. Ashcroft lifted his head off the pillow, said no, and went back to sleep.

When Gonzales, then attorney general, testified before Congress, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), repeatedly pressed him on whether President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney had sent him to Ashcroft's bedside that night. He refused to answer.

Now comes Murray Waas, reporting in the Atlantic that Justice Department investigators are investigating whether Gonzales created a set of fictitious notes to provide a rationale for President Bush's approval of the program. In the notes, Gonzales says that congressional leaders meeting with Cheney wanted the program continued.

The suspicion is prompted in part by the fact that the notes were written days after the meeting -- and after the president approved the program.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Comments

[LWM]

Is anyone suprised at what the Head Waterboy for Pres. Bush would do for his boss? I mean come on....

Yet he still has his law license. Go figure.

LWM

[Rod, FL]

If nobody can indict this Gonzales sleazebag then there is no point in pretending there are checks and balances. Scooter Libby is too small of a sacrifical lamb for all of the crimes these guys are committing in the President's name or under the President's direction.

[Dave in NYC]

Gonzales deserves to be behind bars!