Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program

This is when the other hand dose not, know what the other hand is doing unbelievable

White House Counsel Certifies Presidential Authorization without Department of Justice Agreement

On the morning of March11,2004 with the Presidential authorization set to expire, President Bush signed a new authorization for the President's Surveillance Program. in a departure from the past practice of having the Attorney General certify  the authorizations a form and legality, the March11, Authorization was certified by the White House Counsel Gonzales. The March authorization also differed markedly from prior authorization three other respects. it explicitly asserted that the President's exercise of his Article II Commander-in Chief authority displaced any contrary provisions of law, including FISA.it clarified the description of certain Other Intelligence Activities being conducted under the PSP to address question regarding whether such activities had actually been authorized explicitly in prior authorizations. It also stated that approving the prior Presidential Authorizations as to form and legality, the Attorney General previously had authorized the same activities now being approved under the March 11, Authorization

White House Chief of staff informed Comey by telephone on the morning of March11, 2004, that the President had signed the new Authorization that morning. at approximately noon, Gonzales called Goldsmith to inform him that President, in issuing the Authorization, had made an interpretation of law concerning his authorities and that department of justice should not contradiction of the President's determinations
Also at noon on March 11, Director Mueller met with Card at the White House. According to Mueller notes, Card told Mueller that if no "legislative fix" could be found by May6,2004, when the March 22, Authorization was set to expire, the program would discontinued.

The Department of justice and OIG determined that this statement subsequently was removed from future authorization after Ashcroft complained to Gonzales that the statement was inappropriate " In May 20, 2004 memorandum, Ashcroft wrote that it was until Philbin and later Goldsmith explained to him that aspects of NSA's Other Intelligence Activities were not not accurately described in the prior authorizations that he realized that he had been certifying the authorizations prior to March 2004 based on a misimpression of those activities.

Mueller wrote that he told Card that the failure to have the Department of justice representation at the congressional briefing and the attempt to have Ashcroft certify the authorization without going through Comey" gave the strong perception that the {White House}  was trying to do an end run around the acting [ Attorney General] whom they knew to have some serious concerns as to the legality of portions of the program" Card responded that he and Gonzales were unaware at the time of the hospital visit that Comey was the acting attorney general, and that they had only been following the direction of the President.