Legalities

Life, Politics and the Law From ABC News Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg

Jan Crawford Greenburg is a correspondent for ABC News' bureau in Washington DC. She covers politics, the Supreme Court and provides legal analysis for ABC News. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago's law school and is a member of the New York bar.

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Ashcroft's Silence

May 22, 2008 11:25 AM

Ashcroft's silence

Scattered throughout Glenn Fine's 438-page report are mentions of people who made his job more difficult. On the very first page, he targets the Department of Defense which "delayed" the release of the report while it performed an "over-inclusive" classification review. He says the CIA acting general counsel "hampered" his investigation by objecting to an interview with Abu Zubaydah.

But Fine targets most of his ire at former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. No less than eight times in the report does Fine remind his readers that Ashcroft---the Attorney General when many at the FBI were complaining about detainee treatment---"declined" to participate in Fine's review. That's a lot of mentions.

But a former Justice Department official says Ashcroft chose not to participate because he steadfastly refuses, as a matter of principle, to discuss his conversations with top administration officials.

"He was the cabinet official advising the White House," the official says. “Ashcroft believes such discussions should not be shared."

Many of his top aides did, in fact, participate extensively in the report. Their comments reflect Ashcroft's discomfort with the military using harsh interrogation methods. On page 115, for example, Justice Department lawyer David Nahmias told Fine's investigators he was “fairly” confident DOJ officials raised with the White House concerns about the military’s harsh interrogations of Al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker.

But Ashcroft, the former official says, believes he should remain quiet. This of course is the same man who stayed publicly mum when then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-Chief of Staff Andy Card visited him in intensive care at the hospital back in 2004. We heard all about that visit from Deputy AG James Comey, who dramatically testified before Congress about the White House’s audacious attempt to persuade the critically sick Ashcroft to overrule his decision curtailing aspects of the terrorist surveillance program.

Ashcroft is due to testify this summer before Congress. He will undoubtedly be asked about exactly what he said to the highest-ranking officials in the Bush Administration, including Secretary of State Condi Rice, about interrogation techniques. As things stand now, it doesn’t look like he'll answer.

May 22, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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