Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Sen. Welch presses former AG John Ashcroft on the dynamic between president, attorney general

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Sen. Welch presses former AG John Ashcroft on the dynamic between president, attorney general · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Senator Welch, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, Ms Boss, thank you so much, and
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  Speaker 2: I fully support your advocacy that the Department of Justice
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  Speaker 2: have as a priority focusing on victims.
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  Speaker 1: And I also want to express to.
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  Speaker 2: The the Epstein victims my appreciation for allowing me to
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  Speaker 2: be with you yesterday and be so uplifted by your
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  Speaker 2: support from one another and all you've done to ennoble
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  Speaker 2: the rights of victims and the strength of victims to recover.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Mister Ashcroft.
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to do first of all, say we seem
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  Speaker 2: to have a problem in Missouri with the attorney generals
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  Speaker 2: not being able to keep their job.
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  Speaker 1: They'll end up in the US Senate.
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  Speaker 2: You started quite a trend with mister Holly, mister Schmidt.
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  Speaker 3: Well, in all difference, it should be remembered that a
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  Speaker 3: very important member of the Senate name Jack Danforth, that's right,
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  Speaker 3: it previously served as Attorney General of Missouri. So myself excluded,
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  Speaker 3: I have been a privileged to be in a line
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  Speaker 3: of individuals that I believe have rendered very significant and
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  Speaker 3: valuable service to this nation.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think you thank you, and I agree with that,
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  Speaker 2: and I think, first of all I want to express
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  Speaker 2: to you how much I've admired your career, and I
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  Speaker 2: think that being an attorney general is probably the most
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  Speaker 2: difficult cabinet position. And one of the things that's required
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  Speaker 2: is that you give advice to the president and it
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  Speaker 2: may be advice he doesn't want to hear. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: I remember March of two thousand and four when you
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  Speaker 2: were recovering from an illness and mister Comi was the
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  Speaker 2: acting Attorney General and the President's Council came to your
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  Speaker 2: hospital room and wanted you to sign off on a
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  Speaker 2: security law that mister Comy, in his opinion, thought was
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  Speaker 2: not legal. And you said that was mister Kombe's decision
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  Speaker 2: because he was the acting Attorney general.
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  Speaker 1: Is that right?
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  Speaker 4: I believe that the public written reports.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they've been It's been in novels and other things,
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  Speaker 3: and I have no reason to.
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  Speaker 4: Contest what they've said.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: I was in bed with the morphine pump in one hand.
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  Speaker 3: I was in in what you call, uh what do
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  Speaker 3: they call this intensive care?
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  Speaker 2: And but the bottom line here is that the president
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  Speaker 2: uh wanted an answer to permit him to proceed. But
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  Speaker 2: it was the opinion of mister Komi at that time
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  Speaker 2: that that was not legal.
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  Speaker 1: And this raises really what.
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  Speaker 2: I think is the heart of what is so challenging
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  Speaker 2: to be attorney general. The president is the executive you
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  Speaker 2: serve in his cabinet, but there are times when an
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  Speaker 2: attorney general has to say no.
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  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
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  Speaker 3: No attorney ever is a good attorney who doesn't tell
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  Speaker 3: his client the truth, right, And it's important that the client.
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  Speaker 1: Trust an attorney, and I appreciate.
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  Speaker 3: Accept that, and so I believe that the Attorney General
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  Speaker 3: is sworn to the Constitution of the United.
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  Speaker 1: States and not to an individual.
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  Speaker 4: The answers to the president. He has sworn to the Constitution.
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  Speaker 1: That's exactly right now.
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  Speaker 2: Also, when the Enron case, which was an explosive case,
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  Speaker 2: came up, you had received contributions in.
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  Speaker 1: Your political career. They were totally incompletely legal.
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  Speaker 2: But my understanding is because of that, in the appearance
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  Speaker 2: of a potential conflict, you recused yourself from that that case.
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  Speaker 4: Correct.
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  Speaker 3: I wish I remembered things, especially things you say are
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  Speaker 3: favorable about what I've done, But it's over two decades ago.
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  Speaker 2: What you did, mister Ashcroft, is what needs to be done.
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  Speaker 2: You said it it's the Constitution who's your client. It's
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  Speaker 2: the American people who are ultimately your client, and you
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  Speaker 2: have to give that directing, candid advice to the executive
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  Speaker 2: who is the president.
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  Speaker 1: So that's my question about mister Blanche.
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  Speaker 2: It's not as competence, it's not that he's got an
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  Speaker 2: ongoing relationship.
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  Speaker 1: But can you.
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  Speaker 2: Imagine serving as attorney general and having President Bush come
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  Speaker 2: to you and say, by the way, who paid you
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  Speaker 2: nine million dollars before you got to be attorney general
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  Speaker 2: to represent him in criminal actions? Okay, this is it's astonishing, right.
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  Speaker 1: But then he said, I've got an idea.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to sue the federal government for ten billion
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  Speaker 2: dollars and you're going to represent the irs, And then
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  Speaker 2: why don't you work out a settlement where there's a
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  Speaker 2: one point seven billion dollar fund that I control. Would
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  Speaker 2: you see any anything like odd about that.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't have that situation. I didn't have a president
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  Speaker 3: that had been the subject of illegal disclosure of his activities,
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  Speaker 3: criminal criminal disclosure.
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  Speaker 1: I want to get to your judgment and this because well, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: But you know I swore to tell the truth, the
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  Speaker 3: whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's a big
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  Speaker 3: challenge in an oath, and I so I want to
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  Speaker 3: give my answer and not your answer, although I respect
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  Speaker 3: your question.
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  Speaker 2: No, but when I'm asking, you have incredible credibility, incredible character.
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  Speaker 3: Incredible credibility is kind of almost like senate speaks unbelievable believability.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, no, I was in this body myself and
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  Speaker 3: said on that side of the diist.
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  Speaker 2: But well, you wouldn't have had that reputation if you
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  Speaker 2: were a senator. I mean this is because you stood
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  Speaker 2: up to the president.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yes, I was honest as a senator.
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  Speaker 4: I have to.
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  Speaker 3: I confess my faults from both eras legislative.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just going to finish. Thank you for your indulgence.
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  Speaker 2: But number one, when you saw that there was the
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  Speaker 2: appearance of a conflict, you did not continue representing the
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  Speaker 2: government in the Enron case. Number Two, when it came
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  Speaker 2: to a president's demand on something a vital concern to
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  Speaker 2: the president a national security law, surveillance law, where it
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  Speaker 2: was the opinion of your department that it was illegal,
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  Speaker 2: you stood up to the president and didn't cave. I
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  Speaker 2: respect that, and I believe that's the obligation in the
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  Speaker 2: burden of whoever serves as our Attorney General.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Blanche does not share that.
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  Speaker 3: I thank you for that respect. I hope when I
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  Speaker 3: grow up I lived to to do things right.