Time Line of Gonzales' career

' career

LA Times
August 28, 2007

At last the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down.
Some significant dates in the Washington career of Alberto R. Gonzales, the nation's 80th U.S. attorney general, who announced his resignation Monday.

January 2001: Named President Bush's White House legal counsel.

Jan. 25, 2002: In a memo, Gonzales contends that the president can waive anti-torture
laws and international treaties that provide protections to prisoners of war.

Feb. 3, 2005: Confirmed and sworn in as attorney general.

April 27: While seeking renewal of broad law enforcement powers under the USA Patriot Act, Gonzales tells the Senate Intelligence Committee, "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" from the law enacted after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Dec. 15: The New York Times reports that Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States without getting search warrants.

Feb. 6, 2006: Gonzales tells Congress the president is fully empowered to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants as part of the war on terrorism.

Nov. 18: Gonzales says critics of the administration's warrantless surveillance program define freedom in a way that poses a "grave threat" to U.S. security.

Jan. 17, 2007: Gonzales changes course and puts the government's terrorist spying program under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Feb. 8: Former U.S. Atty. John McKay of Seattle says his resignation was ordered by the Bush administration without explanation, seven months after he received a favorable job evaluation.

March 9: Audit finds that FBI agents improperly and, in some cases, illegally obtained personal information about people in the United States. Gonzales, who oversees the FBI, orders an internal investigation.

March 13: Gonzales accepts responsibility for mistakes in the way the Justice Department handled the dismissal of federal prosecutors. He says he was not closely involved in the process.

March 29: A former top aide disputes Gonzales' claims, saying Gonzales was briefed regularly over two years on the firings.

May 15: Former Deputy Atty. Gen. James B. Comey tells the Senate Judiciary Committee about a dramatic hospital bedside confrontation between Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft, over renewal of a terrorism surveillance program.

May 23: A second former Justice Department aide undercuts Gonzales' assertion that he did not see a list of U.S. attorneys to be fired.

June 11: Republican senators block a symbolic vote of no confidence against Gonzales.

July 10: Democrats raise new questions about whether Gonzales knew about FBI abuses of civil liberties when he told a Senate committee in April 2005 that no such problems occurred.

July 23: Gonzales tells Congress in a statement that he's troubled politics may have played a part in hiring career federal prosecutors.

July 24: Gonzales testifies before a Senate committee that he and former White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. urged Ashcroft to recertify Bush's domestic eavesdropping program. Senators question Gonzales' credibility and accuse him of misleading the committee.

July 26: FBI Director Robert S. Mueller contradicts Gonzales' sworn testimony.

July 31: Democratic House members introduce a measure directing the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether to impeach Gonzales.

Aug. 2: Senators in both parties concede they don't have enough evidence to prove a perjury charge against Gonzales.

Aug. 3: In a two-page letter to senators, Gonzales declines to provide more information about discrepancies in his sworn testimony about the purge of federal prosecutors.

Aug. 16: The House Judiciary Committee releases partially censored notes from Mueller,
dated March 12, 2004, describing a distraught and feeble Ashcroft in his hospital
room just moments after being visited by Gonzales and Card about renewal of a terrorism
surveillance program.

Aug. 24: Gonzales telephones Bush to say he plans to resign.

Source: Associated Press

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