Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed while giving a speech in Washington tonight and was taken to a hospital. Mukasey, 67, began slurring his words, slumped at the lectern and fell to the floor as he neared the end of a speech to the Federalist Society. Several people gathered around him to offer aid and emergency workers arrived. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where Justice Department officials awaited word on his condition.
Members of the audience at his speech, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, formed a human wall so people could not view Mukasey as he was taken away. A member of the audience offered a prayer for Mukasey from the lectern and told everyone to go home.
Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, became attorney general in November 2007, replacing Alberto Gonzales, who resigned after a congressional investigation into allegations he politicized the department. Mukasey is President George W. Bush's third attorney general, following Ashcroft and Gonzales.
In his speech, the attorney general defended the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy against what he termed ``relentless criticism.''
During his Senate confirmation hearings, Mukasey drew praise from lawmakers from both political parties when he pledged to keep politics out of criminal prosecution and vowed to resign if Bush were to ignore his advice that an important initiative would be unconstitutional.
Statements on Torture
Mukasey was confirmed on a 53-40 Senate vote after his statements on torture and interrogation of suspected terrorists touched off a partisan fight. Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, was illegal torture.
``If waterboarding is torture, torture is unconstitutional,'' he said at the confirmation hearing. In a written response to a letter by senators seeking a fuller explanation, Mukasey refused to give a legal opinion based on ``hypotheticals'' instead of ``the actual facts and circumstances.''
Last September, Mukasey named a special prosecutor to investigate possible crimes arising from the Bush administration's firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. The firings led to Gonzales's resignation.