The Bush administration ran its warrantless eavesdropping program without the Justice Department's approval for up to three weeks ...

Tue, May. 15, 2007 | U. S. ATTORNEYS | Initial warrantless eavesdropping program deemed illegal by the Justice Department | By Jonathan S. Landay and Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration ran its warrantless eavesdropping program without the Justice Department's approval for up to three weeks in 2004, nearly triggering a mass resignation of the nation's top law enforcement officials, the former No. 2 official disclosed Tuesday.

In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said that those he believed were prepared to quit included then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Comey said then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card visited Ashcroft as he lay gravely ill in a hospital bed on March 10, 2004, and pressed him to re-certify the program's legality. Ashcroft refused. ...