Angler: The Showdown Over NSA Spying

From Barton Gellman’s second installment of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency.  This installment covers more detail than we’ve known about the revolt at Justice over NSA spying done in violation of the country’s laws.  In March of 2004, the Bush Administration narrowly averted mass resignations by the head of the FBI and about five layers at the top of the Justice Department when the President signed an order enforcing his own will by fiat over the objections of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Acting Attorney General James Comey:

For the first time, a president claimed in writing that he alone could say what the law was. A rebellion, in direct response, became so potent a threat that Bush reversed himself in a day.