The attorney general is the only one who can authorize what's called an emergency FISA.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The Attorney General is not above the law.
The FISA Amendment Act of 2008 actually allows some of the things we were doing under the president's authority only against al Qaeda, it allows them for all legitimate foreign intelligence purposes.
We need an attorney general for the people, not a presidential protector and puppet of the administration.
The attorney general should be enforcing the law, not policy.
I was an attorney general. That was - that matters to me, and if you won't obey your own rules, there's no reason to think you'll obey any others.
I believe the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the Constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the President.
If the events of September 11, 2001, have proven anything, it's that the terrorists can attack us, but they can't take away what makes us American - our freedom, our liberty, our civil rights. No, only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that.
While Congress saw some need to loosen the standard in the initial days of a war, it wanted the president to comply with FISA in carrying out surveillance in the United States.
I couldn't do that as attorney general. Why? Because they are my clients. You can't say they're not doing what they ought to be doing when you are the attorney general.
Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job.