John Ashcroft
PER
Ashcroft John Ashcroft
The concerns prompted Andrew H. Card Jr. and Alberto R. Gonzales to make an emergency visit to a Washington hospital to discuss the program's future and try to win the needed approval from Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery. With Mr. Comey unwilling to sign off on the program, the White House went to Mr. Ashcroft, who had been in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital with pancreatitis and was housed under unusually tight security, because they needed him for certification. But some officials said that Mr. Ashcroft appeared reluctant to give Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales his authorization to continue with aspects of the program in light of concerns among some senior government officials about whether the proper oversight was in place at the security agency and president had the legal and constitutional authority to conduct such an operation.