Story highlights As deputy attorney general, Comey had a late-night standoff in his boss John Ashcroft's hospital room with Bush officials

Comey said the FBI would not recommend prosecuting Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information

About a week before the election, he notified Congress that the FBI was again looking at Clinton's emails

Comey confirmed Monday that during the election the FBI began investigating possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign

Washington (CNN) The first time that James Comey ever delivered bombshell testimony on Capitol Hill, it was about how he stood up to the White House, refusing to let it carry on with warrantless wiretapping through the National Security Agency.

Ten years later, he was at the center of attention again, sitting alongside the NSA, refuting the suggestion that a president could ever unilaterally wiretap without a warrant.

Those two bombshells, which are totally unrelated but share some weird parallels and the common thread of warrantless wiretapping, bookend two other ones about Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Whether it involves sitting presidents, top White House aides, or a former secretary of state, Comey does not appear to discriminate along party lines or anything else.

Comey's first piece of incredible testimony was the yarn about a late-night standoff during his time as deputy attorney general in his boss John Ashcroft's hospital room. Comey had it out with officials from the Bush White House about the NSA's use of warrantless wiretapping, threatening to quit his job if the administration went against him and authorized the program by getting an incapacitated Aschroft, who had just had gall bladder surgery, to sign off. The 2004 affair ultimately helped lead to changes both in the way the NSA conducted its business and an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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