Former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee today that he, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, their top aides and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III nearly resigned in early 2004 after the administration went ahead with a classified program without Justice Department approval.

Comey recounted a dramatic March 2004 showdown between top White House and Justice Department officials, including then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, that was only resolved after President Bush intervened.

Ashcroft, who was hospitalized at the time with acute pancreatitis, had relinquished his authority, making Comey the acting attorney general. Comey described a tense confrontation in Ashcroft’s room at George Washington University Hospital between himself, Ashcroft, Gonzales and former White House chief of staff Andrew Card.

Although Comey declined to specify the program, he most likely was referring to the National Security Agency’s warrantless electronic surveillance program that Bush authorized after the Sept. 11 attacks as a counterterrorism measure. Administration officials have said that program was subject to reauthorization at 45-day intervals. Comey testified that he had balked at reauthorizing the program.

Comey said he prepared a resignation letter after the administration decided to go ahead with the classified program without his approval. He said that he believed his chief of staff, Ashcroft, Mueller and Ashcroft’s chief of staff would have resigned as well.

After Bush intervened, the Justice Department was able to “put this matter on a footing” that he felt he could accept, Comey said.