Fired US Attorney: Ashcroft Was "Pushed Out" Because He "Refused To Sign Off On The Warrantless Wiretaps"

Think Progress:

In March 2004, then-acting Attorney General James Comey refused to sign an order extending President Bush's warrantless domestic spying program "amid concerns about its legality and oversight." Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2007 that the White House tried to force John Ashcroft to overrule him despite the fact that Ashcroft was debilitated in a hospital with pancreatitis.

Now, former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias -- who was fired by the administration for refusing to file bogus voter fraud charges -- tells the Dallas Morning News that Ashcroft's refusal to support the warrantless wiretapping program actually led to him being "pushed out" of the Bush administration:

IGLESIAS: The one really intriguing question I've had was from a book buyer a few months ago who asked whether I thought John Ashcroft had been pushed out or not after he refused to sign off on the warrantless wiretaps. That's something that a journalist has never asked me. The honest answer is, yes, that had Ashcroft done the wrong thing, the unconstitutional thing, and signed off on it, he'd probably still be the AG. But Ashcroft served honorably. He did the right thing, and he paid the price. He was asked to move on.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[RTIII]

02:11 PM on 07/15/2008

I wonder what history would have been like if Ashcroft had NOT been pushed out... Hmmm...
.

[Lemeritus]

01:20 PM on 07/15/2008

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away:

A Republican president tasked his Attorney General with ending an investigation into whether the President was acting in, let's say, Constitutional bad taste. We do not remember if the Attorney General was a man of great honor before that time, but at the moment of truth, the AG resigned rather than participate in the President's villainy. (Note to Monica Gooding and the present sitting Congress: the oath of office is to the Constitution, not to the President.) Perhaps because Brad and Jen, Paris Hilton, Madonna and A-Rod had yet to be invented, the media paid extraordinary attention to this event. It was THE STORY (imagine). And the President was toppled.

Perhaps Ashcroft was no Elliot Richardson, but I would like to believe he had a moment of honor -- utterly unlike our Congress or media.

[realityczech4u]

11:35 AM on 07/15/2008

This comes as a shock. Ashcroft was evil incarnate. I remember loons on the message boards swearing that Ashcroft was building concentration camps in the desert. Johnny, they hardly knew ye.

[helonias]

09:17 AM on 07/15/2008

But I thought it was because he was scared of t*tties

[Ides]

02:46 AM on 07/15/2008

Thanks for reminding me of this story. I forgot to take his name off my "illegal Constitution-destroying ass" list.

[darthdarcy]

12:14 AM on 07/15/2008

This was Ashcroft's redeeming moment when he said No.. to Bush and that Traitor liar David Addington and that little shyster Gonzales...

[dukeitout]

11:28 PM on 07/14/2008

I've always felt that Ashcroft was a man of character and has gotten a bad rap from some on the left. Don't be mislead by his loyalty to some of his misguided associates.

[jcorrington]

11:49 AM on 07/15/2008

NO! something still stinks about this guy. Dont forget that he was just awarded a huge no bid contract for some bs work. Somehow, for some reason we will probably never know, he has been rewarded for something he did for the repugs.

[MajorKong]

10:43 PM on 07/14/2008

You know things are really scary when John Ashcroft is the voice of reason in the room.

[RobinSeattle]

01:42 AM on 07/15/2008

Amen to that brother. When even an as**ole such as Ashcroft won't sign off on it you know it's a bad idea.

[michelv]

08:50 PM on 07/14/2008

Isn't this really old news?

Nonetheless, it tells you what an Fed up situation is when Ashcroft come out as kind of a good guy on this one.

[fourex]

08:38 PM on 07/14/2008

Who are the Dems who knew or signed off on warantless taps? The answer to that is why telecom immunity passed a Democratic congress.

[research]

09:04 PM on 07/14/2008

civil immunity is a distraction, misdirection to get us to overlook the

SPY ON EVERY ONE IN THE WORLD part of the law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOA1YAglmUw

http://www.takebackwashington.com/articles/HR6304_FISA_Amendments_Act.html

...and it worked.

[Krikkit]

07:59 PM on 07/14/2008

Ashcroft is not entirely blameless in the Bush administration legal fiascos. According to Charlie Savage's "The Return of the Imperial Presidency and Subversion of American Democracy," Ashcroft was responsible for a change in hiring policy that disbanded the traditional hiring committees made up of attorneys and installed a new policy where the political appointees were solely responsible for hiring within the Civil Rights division. In direct countervention of civil service law that prohibits hiring on the basis of political ideology, potential employees were vetted on the basis of their conservative credentials. Let us not remake Ashcroft to be an angelic hero at this late date after so much damage to the Justice Department has been done on his account.

[ibsteve2u]

08:56 PM on 07/14/2008

Sssshhhhh - America is trying like hell to convince themselves that this Administration had even ONE honest man...

[RTIII]

02:08 PM on 07/15/2008

One Honest Man, eh?

Be fair; honesty is a continuum, with, for lack of more convenient and widely understood metaphores, Jesus on one end and Satan on the other. Nearly none of us are either Jesus or Satan, and most of us move to different points along the continuum at different times in our lives.

I am heartened to hear of Ashcroft's understanding that the warrantless wiretapping is and was illegal. I say that it nudges him slightly more to the Jesus side. He may have been far better than we ever knew. But we don't know that much.

What we do know, surprisingly, is that Ashcroft was better, apparently, than any of Juniors other appointments to the role of AG... That ain't sain' much, but it's worth sayin' none the less.
.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

07:42 PM on 07/14/2008

This is a surprise? Of course he was fired after falling from the "Yes Man" category. Mr. Bush is a nightmare employer, whether running an oil company into the ground, being given a minority ownership position in a pro team, or slipping in the back door of the White House. Bush's way or the highway. A petty, small man who should be addressing legal charges. The Dem Congress won't touch that. Hopefully, after office, someone, somewhere, will bring legal charges to address his numerous criminal and unconstitutional acts.

Sorry Mr. President. But right is right, and wrong is wrong, despite what a paid attorney of your choosing advises (We're back to "tell him what he wants to hear").

[larry278]

07:39 PM on 07/14/2008

Is anybody working on new lyrics for Webb Pierce's "He's in the jail house now." for W & Co All I have is, I had a friend named Bush; he got kicked in the tush....He's in the jail house now.". It doesn't scan. It gets worse when I start with, He had a wife named Laura... She knew he was the dumbest man around.
Kinky Friedman or Willy Nelson will do better; I hope. Anybody will do better; I know. How about the Dixie Chicks? Since the cost of power will be so high that the chain C & W stations will have to go off the air or reduce power to 5 watts, banning it or removing it from play lists won't work. It ought to be covered by every picker in the country. If they play it on the street, they'll get hats full of $10.00 bills. A loaf of bread will cost $20.00 by 1/21/09. Nobody'll get rich but it'll be fun.

[vinny]

07:33 PM on 07/14/2008

Looking forward, what I think this shows is how the concentration of power in the executive is not good for the protection of individuals from warantless surveillance. Given the FISA court is appointed by one unelected, life-tenured official, and that executives are expected to tow the party line or else, what we have with FISA is something akin to a socialist arrangement where the rights and liberties of individuals are not accounted for in the system.

[Krikkit]

08:01 PM on 07/14/2008

Consentration of power has never been "good" for any individual not associated with the center of power, whether the issue is warrantless wiretapping or any other.

[obamanation31]

07:16 PM on 07/14/2008

I always thought he was one of the bad guys. Now, I've come to realize he was nealrly as bad as some others.