New Wiretap Scandal

Quite unexpectedly, former deputy AG James Comey testified today that, at one point, the Administration tried to get him to sign off on an even more sweeping wiretap bill when Ashcroft was in the hospital with pancreatitis (so Comey was Acting AG). Comey refused. So Card (WH chief of staff) and Gonzales (then WH counsel) went to the hospital to try to coerce Ashcroft into signing. He still refused. It went into effect anyway. Later, a current, "revised" version was agreed to.

"I was very upset," Comey told the committee. "I was angry. I thought I 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."

And what did the Administration really ask for? Comey would not say. But if it was too much for Ashcroft... wow...