Contempt of Congress

When now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was White House Counsel, he visited then Attorney General John Ashcroft in the hospital in an effort to strongarm him into approving a surveillance program that President Bush wanted, but required approval from the Attorney General. Thing is, Ashcroft had already relinquished his authority to his deputy, James Comey. Comey had decided not to sign off on the program, but Gonzales shows up in ICU to try to get a sedated Ashcroft to overule his deputy. Gonzales has testified to at least three different versions of this story, and here he is being asked a simple question: who asked him to visit Ashcroft in the hospital? Notice that he does not claim any sort of executive privilege. He's simply refusing to answer a direct question posed by a Senator before a congressional committee, quite literally in contempt of Congress.