Details of Gonzales Hospital Visit Emerge

Things just keep getting worse for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Murray Waas of The Atlantic has two stories out today about the details of the infamous visit Gonzales, serving as White House counsel at the time, and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card made to the hospital room of ailing then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in March of 2004.

In one of the stories, Waas reports that Gonzales' former department launched an investigation into whether notes Gonzales kept were faked in order to create, as Waas puts it, "a rationale for reauthorizing his warrantless eavesdropping program". Four members of Congress dispute a claim in Gonzales' notes that they expressed a desire for the program to continue in a meeting with Gonzales and Vice President Cheney despite Aschroft and acting AG James Comey's refusal to sign off on the program. President Bush later said he relied on Gonzales' notes to make his decision to reauthorize the program.

In Wass' other story, he cites "people familiar with statements recently made by Gonzales to federal investigators" that say Gonzales told investigators that Bush directed him go to visit Ashcroft in the hospital.

Gonzales is currently under investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general, who is trying to determine if Gonzales lied to Congress when he testified about the surveillance program. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility also has a separate ongoing investigation into Gonzales' authorization and oversight of the program.