True Faith and Allegiance

by Alberto R. Gonzales

  At the end of the hearing, Senator Specter said, “I think we have gone about as far as we can go.” Then to emphasize his disdain, Specter added, “We have not gotten really [sic] answers.”7 Apart from avoiding a charge of perjury, I did myself little good that day.

  During this time of turmoil, of course I worried about my future. I worried even more, however, how these hearings and media stories would affect the work of the Department of Justice. Fortunately, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 27, 2007, when asked whether the dismissal of the US attorneys had impeded ongoing investigations, FBI director Bob Mueller answered firmly that they had not.8

  Although my hearing had been brutal, I chose not to dwell on it. It was time to move on. I had to concentrate on my job as well as my family. For example, two days later, I joined my sons in participating in a volunteer cleanup of the Anacostia River. Even there, however, reporters lurked nearby us. That evening, I attended the black-tie White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Usually a festive occasion, when most attendees let down their guard for a few hours, I nonetheless felt that all eyes of the media were on me. My press hosts for the evening admitted that they had wondered if I would even attend, speculating that my absence might be the signal that I was resigning.

  I told them straightforwardly, “I am here, and I am not resigning.”

  Following my testimony in April, the Democratic senators redirected the thrust of their attacks beyond my decision to recommend that President Bush dismiss seven US attorneys to my competence as attorney general. They portrayed me as too inept to lead the department. By late April and on into early May, various senators, including several so-called conservative voices in Congress, abandoned me and joined the chorus calling for me to resign.

  It was a tough time for my family and me, but I maintained my focus on serving the American people. There were 105,000 DOJ employees counting on me. The president was counting on me. And my family was counting on me. While Becky read every word of the criticisms, I did not. The accusations were not true so I ignored them. The strength to do so came not from political sources but from my faith, bolstered by continued prayer with my wife.

  The chorus soon took on even more vitriolic tones. Critics hurled insults saying I had lied about the Terrorist Surveillance Program and that I had politicized the Justice Department; they trumpeted their misrepresentations repeatedly, cumulatively creating a snowball effect. The snowball continued to grow and became a mountain of false accusations, with my critics and even some of my so-called political friends excoriating me for my overall failures as the attorney general, rather than pointing to any actual evidence of my failures.

  By this time, I had asked Kevin O’Connor, the US attorney from Connecticut, to serve as my interim chief of staff. He served in both positions for the remainder of my tenure as attorney general. Kevin was bright and outgoing, and well respected by his peers. Over time, he became more than my chief of staff; he became an advisor and a friend.

  I sat for another hearing on May 11, 2007, this time with the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Michigan Democrat John Conyers Jr. The questions were much the same, as were my answers, but the Republican members of the House were much more supportive and more protective of me than had been their counterparts in the Senate.

  Several congressmen didn’t bother to ask any questions at all about the dismissed prosecutors, and others disdained the Democrats’ pursuit of the topic.9 Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the committee, suggested that it might be time to end the investigation. “If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat and turn to more pressing issues,” Smith said.10

  Amen! I thought. I went back to work with renewed vigor, concentrating on matters such as immigration, border violence, the rule of law in Iraq, and the increasing Islamist radicalization in our prisons.

  On May 15, 2007, former deputy attorney general Jim Comey, now in the private sector prior to being selected in 2013 as FBI director under President Obama,11 testified before the Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee and Senator Specter regarding the dismissal of the US attorneys. But the real agenda became clear when the senators questioned Comey about Stellar Wind. Before getting to Comey, however, the acting chairman, Senator Schumer, presented a caustic opening statement, misrepresenting facts or casting them in the worst possible light.

  Schumer went on to say that Comey “has contradicted other DOJ officials by testifying that most of the fired US attorneys performed well.”12 Interestingly, when Schumer finally got around to asking Comey about the US attorneys—after Schumer questioned him for more than twenty minutes about the visit to John Ashcroft’s hospital room—the former deputy attorney general was much more vague than Schumer had implied. That seemed to matter little to Senator Schumer.

  Although I was not at the hearing, Schumer tipped his hand early—the hearing was not nearly so much about the dismissal of the US attorneys as it was about me, and specifically, Schumer’s intent to oust me as attorney general. Unfortunately, other Republicans on the committee were not in attendance, and the only Republican there to defend me was Senator Specter—and he didn’t. Specter quickly piled on with his future Democratic colleagues.

  Anyone who has testified before Congress or served in the federal government would find it hard to believe that Jim Comey had not been warned in advance that in a hearing about the removal of US attorneys, the committee would inquire in detail about Stellar Wind and the visit to former attorney general John Ashcroft in the hospital. Comey had been the US attorney in Manhattan, so he obviously had a relationship with New York senator Schumer. But an even more important relationship may have been the one between Comey and Preet Bharara, who served as chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. Mr. Bharara worked under Comey when he was US attorney in New York. A former assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, Bharara helped lead the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation regarding the removed US attorneys.

  While debriefing Jim Comey prior to his testimony, Bharara learned about the hospital visit. He took that information to Schumer. Years later, in an interview with the New Yorker, Bharara acknowledged his prehearing collusion with Comey and Schumer. According to writer Jeffrey Toobin, “In the days leading up to the hearing, Bharara and Schumer told no one about the revelation that was coming. ‘I was afraid that if the story got out of what Jim was going to say the Bush Administration would figure out a way to prevent him from testifying,’ Bharara said. ‘We needed to preserve the element of surprise.’ ”13

  One might wonder whether Preet Bharara’s role in ambushing the Bush administration was a factor in his appointment as a US attorney in Manhattan.

  When I found out from our DOJ legislative liaison that Comey was testifying, I was surprised. What? What is he testifying about? I wondered. Jim had been away from Washington for several years, so why would he be called upon to testify about the US attorneys? It was also odd that we had received no notice at DOJ regarding the appearance of one of the former members of our leadership team at a Senate hearing. I called White House counsel Fred Fielding, and Fred confirmed that he had no prior notice of Comey’s testimony either. I was disappointed that the man who had been given so much in his legal career—appointed by President Bush as a US attorney and then as deputy attorney general—did not even notify the White House or me in advance of his testimony. It felt to me that Jim’s loyalty was more to his friend Preet Bharara and to Chuck Schumer.

  As the hearing was taking place on Capitol Hill, I was with President Bush. May 15 is also observed as Peace Officers Memorial Day, a day honoring fallen police officers sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police. As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, this event meant a lot to me, and I attended every year I was attorney general. So late that morning, President Bush and I sat together on the platform at the ceremony, alo
ng with other law enforcement officials and congressional leaders.

  Typically, at most events, President Bush and I engaged in friendly banter of some sort, but not on this occasion. We were not yet aware of what was said at the hearing, and had not yet had an opportunity to study it or react to it with each other. Still, we were painfully aware that the media would be glued to our every expression, looking for a reaction to the former deputy attorney general’s testimony. Consequently, other than a brief greeting, neither of us said a word to each other during the entire program, and we exited quickly at the conclusion.

  Comey’s testimony for nearly the first hour of the hearing had nothing to do with the US attorneys, as first Schumer and then Specter questioned him about Andy’s and my visit to John Ashcroft’s hospital room. In what some would later describe as a passionate recollection of that night, he gave the impression that Andy and I were trying to take advantage of a dying man, to force him to sign the authorization for Stellar Wind.

  Later when I learned of the testimony, I felt sadness. What would my wife think? What would my two young sons think? Would their friends make fun of them because of their dad?

  To his credit, when asked, Comey acknowledged he did not suffer any recriminations as a result of his opposition to the disputed aspects of Stellar Wind, not from the president, not from Andy Card, not from DOJ, and not from me. In fact, he and I continued to work together for another sixteen months after that unusual incident, until August 2005, when he left to go to work in the private sector.

  When the senators finally got around to asking Comey for his impressions of the seven dismissed US attorneys, he basically said that he thought they were all doing a good job, that he had a positive sense about several of them, and that he had no personal knowledge of why they were asked to resign. He did say that the EARS evaluations were a top-to-bottom review of the US attorney’s office, although he clearly did not say the EARS report analyzed the performance of the US attorney.14 Apart from that, he added nothing to the discussion of the dismissals. Also to his credit, when Senator Specter asked him about his interactions with me, Comey answered, “In my experience with Attorney General Gonzales, he was smart and engaged. And I had no reason to question his judgment during our time together at the Department of Justice. We had a good working relationship. He seemed to get issues. I would make a recommendation to him. He would discuss it with me and make a decision . . . I did not have reason to question his judgment as attorney general.”15 Nevertheless, Comey’s testimony hurt me, more than I realized at the time.

  The next day, in San Antonio, I had an opportunity to reinforce my support of our US attorneys at their national conference. Unfortunately, the assaults on my integrity, competence, and character continued throughout the month. I stayed focused on my job, working with Secretaries Spellings and Levitt on gun violence at schools following the tragic incident at Virginia Tech, highlighting the plight of missing children, developing strategies to deal with corrupt online pharmacies, as well as attending a G8 Justice and Interior Ministers meeting in Munich. Becky, however, bore the brunt of it; she continued to read every word of the negative press, and it hurt her deeply. From time to time, the president gave me a reassuring word and encouraged me to hang in there. On May 29, I was at the White House for a Homeland Security briefing. Following the meeting, the president and I walked back to his private dining room.

  “I’m concerned about how you are getting beat up,” he said. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine,” I told him, “but this is hard. I’m trying to stay focused on doing my job as attorney general.”

  “How’s the department doing?” he asked.

  “We’re all trying to stay focused,” I said.

  “Well, I want what is best for you,” he said.

  I expressed my appreciation and went back to work, determined to fend off the attacks against me.

  In early June, the president traveled overseas to a G8 conference. Upon his return, I went to the White House again for another Homeland Security briefing on June 12. The president appeared tired, but we had a lively session. While the president had been away, the Democratic senators had attempted to drive through a no-confidence vote on my continuation as attorney general. They had failed to get enough votes to invoke cloture, so the motion was dropped. With a twinkle in his eye, the president whimsically congratulated me on the failed cloture vote.

  He told me that he had been asked about the vote by the media while he was in Albania. “I told them that I didn’t care what the Senate did,” he quipped, “the vote wouldn’t matter to me.”

  On June 22, Becky and I attended the Academy of Achievement awards banquet. Every year at their International Summit conference, the academy inducts new members based on their outstanding achievements in business, politics, sports, entertainment, academia, or public service. I was honored to have been selected in 2006, so Becky and I attended the 2007 edition of the black-tie banquet in Washington.

  As past honorees, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and I were asked to present country music superstars Brooks & Dunn, two of the inductees for 2007.

  Before the banquet, Margaret and I were visiting with Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn. I was a longtime fan of the country music duo, so I was excited to meet them. During the course of our conversation, I was surprised to learn that they were aware of me and my recent troubles. I jokingly suggested that they should consider writing a song about me, that events surrounding me might make a great country song.

  “Oh no,” quipped Dunn. “That’s too sad for a country song.”

  CHAPTER 37

  A SLOWLY TURNING TIDE

  On July Fourth, Becky and I attended the president’s birthday party, hosted by the First Lady at the White House. For a few hours, we dismissed our troubles as we celebrated the president’s birthday and our nation’s independence.

  By mid-July, I felt the worst was over regarding the fired US attorneys, but I continued to get beat up badly in the media. Despite the fact that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and no smoking gun in the documents produced by the Department of Justice and the many hours of testimony before Congress, my detractors only increased their speculation about my future. When the White House chose to invoke executive privilege, based on institutional considerations, to exclude certain high-level White House communications over the US attorneys’ flap, the Democrats insisted the Bush administration was hiding something. The Democrat-led drumbeat demanding my resignation incessantly pounded away.

  Although I had been part of the Bush administration for seven years, and had witnessed firsthand the vindictiveness of those vying for power inside the Washington Beltway, I still had a naïve optimism that the truth would win out, and that everything would work out. As my father had often told me, “It has to work out.”

  Some Hispanic groups suggested the abusive treatment I had received was nothing short of racism. Many of my Hispanic friends wondered whether the opposition to me, as the highest-ranking US government official with a Hispanic ethnic background, was an effort to undermine President Bush’s hopes of immigration reforms or to block me from ever going on the Supreme Court.

  As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, I had wanted to help lead the way to develop genuine, workable immigration reforms. As the first-ever attorney general with Hispanic roots, I believe I would have been an effective spokesperson to address what was wrong with our broken immigration system and to offer viable alternatives, but the controversies swirling around me rendered my views and suggestions almost useless. It was frustrating for me and for my many Hispanic friends who had come to America legally.

  Several friends encouraged me to resign, warning that I was sabotaging my own future and that of my family by staying and enduring the almost daily false accusations. Tim Flanigan, my former deputy in the White House, called me a couple of times during this period and said, “Get out of there. You’re getting killed. This is going to ruin you professionally. G
et out of there!” I’d also heard that the president’s counsel, Fred Fielding, had mentioned to several people in the Washington legal community, “Al needs to get out of there.” At times, I wondered if it might be better for the Justice Department and for the president, as well as for me, if I simply resigned. But my friend, the president of the United States, had asked me to stay on and fight. So I did.

  I was now one of the few Bushies who had come from Texas and was still working together with the president. Most others had moved on or moved back to Texas. I understood that; with each passing day, I felt more and more isolated and alone in Washington. After a while, it seemed I was standing all by myself, abandoned by everyone except the president. Most days, I kept my chin up. I had to because of my job. But increasingly I went home discouraged, feeling as if there was nobody to whom I could turn. The more I pondered the situation, the more I was confused. I prayed for understanding, but found none. I tended to internalize my frustrations and concerns. I didn’t even try to talk with Becky about the matters with which I was dealing. It was simply too painful.

  Becky and I coped with the pressures differently. I clammed up and kept everything inside, while she vented to her Bible study group. We found that it was actually easier not to talk to each other about what was happening, so Becky often cried alone. She tried not to let me see her tears because she didn’t want to put more of a burden on me. We simply put our heads down and tried to get through each day.

  Even normally happy, good times somehow came with a sour twist. On a Sunday afternoon in July, my family and I attended a T-ball game held on the South Lawn of the White House, commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s career in Major League Baseball. We sat in the stands along with other members of the president’s cabinet, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. As he usually did, President Bush stood at home plate to welcome everyone. Before the game, the president acknowledged Alphonso and Dirk, but he had not seen me, so he failed to note my presence.