WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House demanded in 2004 that the Justice Department approve a secret national security program without allowing the ailing attorney general, “feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed,” to discuss the matter with top advisers, according to the FBI director’s personal notes.

The partially censored notes from FBI chief Robert S. Mueller, dated March 12, 2004, describe a distraught and feeble Attorney General John Ashcroft in his hospital room just moments after being visited by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card, the president’s chief of staff at the time.

Mueller’s account backs up earlier descriptions of the dispute over whether to continue the program despite Justice Department concerns about its legality.

Last month, Mueller told a House committee that the clash was about the government’s warrantless wiretapping; Gonzales and the White House denied that and said it was about other intelligence activities.

More at the Associated Press

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