May 15, 2007 · — The White House’s eventual agreement to suspend the warrantless spying in the face of a threat of mass resignations, including from FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Ashcroft. Digg It! Details below:
May 18, 2017 · Ashcroft, weak from gallbladder surgery, was under pressure from White House officials Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card to sign papers reauthorizing the domestic surveillance program secretly ...
Aug 16, 2007 · The notes recount Mr. Mueller’s arrival at the hospital after Mr. Gonzales and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, had attempted to …
Two senior White House officials, Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales, were headed to Ashcroft's hospital bed, despite the instructions of his wife that there would be no phone calls or visitors.
Ashcroft, buffered by his wife and three of his senior deputies, faces down Gonzales and Card and refuses to sign off on the spy program. Gonzales and Card storm out of the room.
The call came at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 10, 2004. Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the hospital, struck with a life-threatening case of pancreatitis. Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey was just leaving his office, being chauffeured by his security detail.
The White House meeting produces no breakthrough. So the White House reauthorizes the program without the approval of the Department of Justice, apparently breaking its own procedure. "I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th," Comey said.
There is a popular misconception that the White House was first painted white to cover the scorch marks left by British soldiers who burned the house on August 24, 1814. In fact, the White House first received a lime-based whitewash in 1798 to protect its sandstone exterior from moisture and cracking during winter freezes.
The term “White House” was occasionally used in newspapers and periodicals throughout the nineteenth century, but most journalists, citizens, and visitors referred to it as either the “President’s House” or the “Executive Mansion.”.