Jack Goldsmith: Bush sent Card and Gonzales to see Ashcroft in hospital [View All]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/10/testimony-revea.html

ABC News' Jason Ryan Reports: Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), testified to Congress Tuesday about the excessive secrecy in the Bush administration over the NSA wiretapping program and the illegal nature of some aspects of the Terrorism Surveillance Program saying, "I could not find the legal support for (it)."

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Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Goldsmith what his constitutional concerns were about the program. Citing requests from the Justice Department Goldsmith said, "I am not allowed to talk about the legal analysis."

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Goldsmith also provided his account of the now infamous March 10, 2004 hospital visit to Ashcroft after he had surgery to remove gallstones. On that day former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, then serving as White House counsel, along with then-White House chief of staff Andy Card visited Ashcroft, seeking reauthorization of the NSA surveillance program. Ashcroft, however, had ceded his powers as attorney general to his deputy, James Comey, while he recovered from surgery.

Goldsmith, who arrived before Gonzales made it to the hospital room said Ashcroft, "looked terrible. very weak and that "he had surgery the day before." Goldsmith said Gonzales was "there to seek authorization of the program." Ashcroft regained color in his face and told Gonzales he didn't appreciate being visited in the hospital since Comey was the acting attorney general. "At that point he fell back into the bed and looked terrible again."

Asked whom he believed had sent Gonzales and Card to the hospital Goldsmith said he "recalled it was the President." Goldsmith also testified that he had written contemporaneous notes around the time of the hospital visit because, "They were extraordinary events," Goldsmith said. "This was a hugely important issue inside the government."