Washington – After weeks of remaining quiet about whether U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign, Sen. Ken Salazar today said that he plans to tell Gonzales he’s not pleased with his actions, then make a statement about whether the Justice Department head should keep his job.
Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said today he was “extremely troubled,” by Judiciary Committee hearing testimony Tuesday that Gonzales, as White House Counsel, visited then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in the hospital – after he’d just had surgery – and asked him to sign papers reauthorizing President Bush’s domestic-spying program. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card accompanied Gonzales on that trip.
“It seems to me that based on the testimony yesterday, for the Attorney General and his people to go to John Ashcroft as he’s lying sick in bed and essentially trying to force him to sign the authorization for the warrant-less wiretapping program is something that is very, very bad,” Salazar said.
Salazar said he plans to talk to Gonzales and “let him know my disappointment in his work and leadership.”
Salazar is a friend of Gonzales and has not yet called for his resignation as other Democrats and Republican lawmakers have demanded.
