Report Says Gonzales Mishandled Classified Items

Former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales mishandled highly classified information relating to the National Security Agency's wiretapping program and the administration's prisoner interrogation program, an internal report concluded Tuesday. The Justice Department inspector general, who investigated Mr. Gonzales's handling of the documents, said he kept classified material at his home and in an office safe in violation of security procedures. The inspector general referred the matter to the national security division of the Justice Department for possible criminal action, but officials there declined to prosecute Mr. Gonzales. The most sensitive material among the documents was Mr. Gonzales's handwritten account of an emergency meeting at the White House on March 10, 2004, regarding the N.S.A. wiretapping program. Mr. Gonzales, who was then White House counsel, called the meeting with the eight highest-ranking members of Congress after James Comey, then the deputy attorney general, refused to certify the legality of the agency's program. At the time, Attorney General John Ashcroft was in intensive care in the hospital after gallbladder surgery.