What role did the Justice Department under attorney general John Ashcroft play in deterring the bush administration's policies on interrogation and intelligence gathering?

The Justice Department often clashed with the Bush administration's interrogation and intelligent gathering efforts, spearheaded by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Famously, John Ashcroft, who headed the Department at the time, was pressured, while recovering from surgery in a hospital, to overrule a finding that a domestic surveillance program was illegal.