Ashcroft Had Doubts About Wiretap Program

I still can't believe that this issue hasn't really been addressed. Bill Clinton can't have an affair but George W. Bush can listen in on our phone calls without a warrant?

WASHINGTON - President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was so questionable that a top Justice Department official refused for a time to reauthorize it, sparking a standoff with top White House officials that culminated at the bedside of an ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004.

The White House, Comey said, recertified the program without the Justice Department's signoff, allowing it to operate for about three weeks without concurrence on whether it was legal. Comey, Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and other Justice Department officials at one point considered resigning, Comey said.

Source: White House pushed Ashcroft on 2004 wiretaps - Politics - MSNBC.com