SCHIEFFER:
Let me also shift to this whole Karl Rove controversy… according
to Frank Rich in The New York Times this morning, on September
29th, 2003, when you were the White House counsel, the Justice
Department notified you that it had opened an investigation
into who outed Joe Wilson's wife, but that you waited 12
hours to notify White House staffers that they had to preserve
materials connected to that case. That, of course, would
give people time to shred documents and do any number of
things. Why didn't you immediately notify the White House
staff that this Justice Department investigation was about
to commence?Mr.
GONZALES: …In this particular case, we were notified
by the Department of Justice late one evening. I guess it
was about 8:00. And I specifically had our lawyers go back
to the Department of Justice lawyers and ask them, ‘Do you
want us to notify the staff now, immediately, or would it
be OK to notify the staff early in the morning?’ And we
were advised, ‘Go ahead and notify the staff early in the
morning. That would be OK.’ And again, most of the staff
had gone home. No one knew about the investigation. And
we made...
SCHIEFFER:
Well, let me just ask you the obvious question, Mr. Attorney
General. Did you tell anybody at the White House, ‘Get ready
for this, here it comes?’
Mr.
GONZALES: I told one person in the White House that—of
the notification and...
SCHIEFFER:
Who?
Mr.
GONZALES: ...then immediately—I told the chief of staff.
And then immediately the next morning, I told the president.
And shortly thereafter, there was a notification sent out
to all the members of the White House staff.
*
* *
September
29, 2003, 8:07pm:
*phone
rings*
“Hello?”
“Alberto!
What’s up, Speedy?”
“Ashcroft!
How’s it hanging?”
“Definitely
to the right.”
“Ha!
Good one! What’s up?”
“Bad
news, Speedy. Looks like we’re going to have to ‘investigate’
this thing with Joe Wilson.”
“Man,
what a dick!”
“Totally.
Anyhow, you know...we’re supposed to tell you to ‘preserve
all documents’ and all...”
“Fuck!
Come on, man!”
“I
know, I know, but seriously, people are pissed. They want
me to recuse myself, but, you know, fuck that. Still, I’ve
gotta make it look good.”
“Shit—this
is not happening. Umm, listen man; I need a little time
here.”
“Well,
why else do you think I’d be calling you at night? I’m missing
the fucking Simpsons, for fuck’s sake!”
“It’s
a rerun anyway. Can you believe Family Guy’s back on?”
“I
know, awesome!”
“Totally.
So, what are you saying about calling me at night?”
“Come
on Speedy, do I have to spell it out?”
“Umm...yeah,
I guess. You know, that ‘Speedy’ thing is a little annoying.”
“Seriously?
Come on, Alberto, it’s just a joke; if I was a racist, I’d
never call you that to your face. It’s a term of endearment.”
“Well…I
guess.”
If
you want me to stop saying it, I’ll stop.”
“No,
don’t worry about it, really. So anyhow, yeah, what do you
mean, you know, about calling late?”
“Put
it this way: if everybody was out of the office, I wouldn’t
have a problem with giving you till tomorrow to tell them
to preserve the documents.”
“No,
everybody’s still here; it’s the friggin’ White House, man,
we’re always at it—what is it, 8:00?”
“Jesus...look,
I didn’t hear that. Listen carefully: I’ll give you 12 hours
to tell everyone to preserve their documents, IF nobody’s
there.”
“But
everybody’s--”
“ALBERTO!
You’re not receiving me here. How did you ever get this
job being such a bad liar?”
“Oh.
Ohhhh. Okay, I get it.”
“Riiight.
So you say....”
“Hey
John, love to help you out, but, you know, it’s late; everybody
already went home. Heh. Is it cool if I wait till tomorrow
to tell them?”
“Hey,
I don’t see why not. Take 12 hours. Who’s it gonna hurt,
right?”
“Right,
hahaha.”
“Heh
heh heh heh, see that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No,
that was pretty easy, heh. Thanks a bunch, John. Okay, I
gotta go tell Andy to warm the shredders up.”
“Goddammit,
Gonzales, don’t tell me that! Jesus!”
“Oh
yeah! Sorry, man. Er, I was just kidding. That was a joke.”
“Uh,
okay, sure, ‘good one.’ Christ.
“Anything
else?”
“No.
Just call Andy right away; he’ll know what to do. Now hang
up before you get us both indicted.”
“Okay,
man...good lookin’ out, buddy. See ya.”
*click*
“Christ.
Fucking wetback.”
*click*
