WASHINGTON AP – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales denied Tuesday that he and former White House chief of staff Andy Card pressured then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to recertify President Bush’s intelligence-gathering program during a now-famous 2004 hospital visit.
Gonzales said that he and Card had been urged by congressional leaders of both parties to ensure that the intelligence program survive a looming deadline for its expiration. To do that, Gonzales said, he needed the permission of Ashcroft, then the attorney general. Ashcroft at the time was in an intensive care unit recovering from gall bladder surgery.
