Story highlights The two former FBI directors were side by side during a major Bush administration showdown

Comey said Mueller was one of the finest people he'd met

Washington (CNN) Just over a week after President Donald Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, the Department of Justice appointed Comey's predecessor, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, as special counsel for the investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election.

The two former FBI chiefs have a unique relationship, stemming in large part from working side by side during a major confrontation with the Bush administration.

By sheer coincidence, this week marked 10 years since Comey gave his bombshell testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the showdown with President George W. Bush's White House. It began in 2004, when Comey refused to reauthorize an NSA spying program.

Comey was deputy attorney general at the time, and was serving as the acting head of the Justice Department while Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the hospital.

Comey said he had found out that White House chief of staff Andrew Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales were headed to Ashcroft's hospital room to get the sick attorney general to OK the program. Comey said he called his chief of staff to get his people to the hospital, and that his second call was to the FBI director.

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