In written answers to Senate Judiciary Committee questions, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey indicated that Dick Cheney was "more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program" (Washington Post).
Starting in 2002, the program allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to tap Americans' overseas phone calls and emails without a warrant. In 2006, a federal judge declared the program illegal (court opinion).
On March 10, 2004, Comey and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft questioned the program's legality and refused to re-authorize it, even after Administration officials pressured Ashcroft in his hospital room while he recovered from surgery. This came out during Comey's May 15 testimony before the Senate Committee (Newsweek).
In recently released Q&A's, Comey said the hospital visit was one day after a White House meeting, where Justice Department officials objected to the wiretapping program. DoJ lawyer Patrick Philbin voiced strong objections; later, Cheney's office blocked Philbin's job promotion (Washington Post).
Senator Chuck Schumer commented: "The vice president's fingerprints are all over the effort to strong-arm Justice on the NSA program, and the obvious next question is: exactly what role did the president play?"
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