FBI Chief Refutes Gonzales

Newly released notes taken by the FBI director in 2004 contradict Alberto Gonzales' Senate testimony about the internal conflict over the warrantless wiretapping program. Robert Mueller's heavily redacted notes refer to hospitalized AG John Ashcroft as "feeble" and "barely articulate," the Washington Post reports—a far cry from Gonzales' claim that his predecessor was "lucid."

Mueller's notes square with then-deputy AG James Comey's testimony about the dispute over the partially illegal NSA wiretapping program, which led Mueller, Comey, and other top Justice officials to threaten to resign. Gonzales, then White House counsel, has said he visited Ashcroft's hospital room but that the disagreement was not over the surveillance program. (More Alberto Gonzales stories.)