 President Bush's White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card Jr., went to Ashcroft's bedside in the hospital intensive-care unit, to persuade the incapacitated Attorney General to sign a document to "reauthorize" the program that Justice had declared illegal and at end.According to his account before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Acting Attorney General James Comey alerted then-FBI Director Robert Mueller III of the reauthorization plan, and "raced" to the hospital, "sirens blaring" , arriving ahead of Gonzales and Card, Jr. Ashcroft, "summoning the strength to lift his head and speak", refused to sign; by his description in interview, Jack Goldsmith, head of the Office of Legal Counsel for Justice, was also there to support Ashcroft, as was Patrick Philbin, an Associate Deputy Attorney General (according to congressional testimony from Comey).FBI Director Robert Mueller, who also was rushing to the hospital, spoke by phone to Ashcroft's security detail, ordering them not to allow Card or Gonzales to have Comey removed from the hospital room.