Attorney General Ashcroft Upholds the Rule of Law in Famous Hospital Confrontation
Lying in his hospital bed at George Washington University Hospital after gall bladder surgery, Attorney General John Ashcroft on this day displayed perhaps the greatest act of courage and integrity in the history of his office. The confrontation in his hospital room arose when Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the George W. Bush administration, concluded that parts of the administration’s surveillance programs were illegal and should not be extended.
Bush aides Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card learned of the decision and rushed to Ashcroft’s room at the hospital to get him to sign the approval (The OLC serves, in effect, as the lawyer for the Justice Department; the importance of the position has grown quietly but significantly in recent decades.)
Meanwhile, James Comey, deputy attorney general, learned of their plan and rushed to the hospital, arriving just before the others. When Gonzales and Card asked Ashcroft, who was visibly unwell, to sign the document, he raised himself up, pointed to Comey, and noted that he was acting attorney general. It was an act of enormous courage and integrity.
James Comey had a mixed record in later years. As Director of the FBI during the 2016 presidential election most observers believe that he seriously mishandled the investigation of Hillary Clinton by making public statements that he would not indict her but that her conduct was unprofessional. He then became famous in 2017 when President Donald J. Trump fired him as FBI Director. The public outrage over Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Council to investigate possible collusion between President Trump and Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
The Bush aides pressed on to get President Bush to sign the approval. (Opinions of the OLC are advisory only, and presidents are free to ignore them, although there is no known case where a president has done that.) Comey confronted the president and said he would resign if Bush signed the document. Many other Justice Department officials also threatened to resign, and Bush backed down and did not sign the approval.
Read about the incident: Jack Goldsmith, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment in the Bush Administration (2007)
Read James Comey’s memoirs: James B. Comey, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Loyalty (2018)
Learn about the Comey – Clinton controversy here