Politics

Ashcroft Has Skin Lesions Removed

January 29, 2002 / 5:55 PM EST / AP

Attorney General John Ashcroft had benign skin lesions removed from his left ear last week, the Justice Department said.

Reporters initially noticed a small bandage on Ashcroft's ear Monday during a speech he gave on terrorism at the Organization of American States in Washington.

Justice officials acknowledged the medical procedure late Tuesday, hours before President Bush's State of the Union address.

Ashcroft, 59, a former Missouri governor and U.S. senator, took over as attorney general in February 2001.

Capt. David Ferguson, a physician at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., said the skin lesions were biopsied by dermatologists during Ashcroft's annual physical exam on Friday. Ferguson said the lesions were "similar to those he's had in the past."

Ferguson said Ashcroft did not suffer from any melanomas, "and the attorney general's overall health was found to be excellent."

The number of lesions was not disclosed.

Ashcroft has removed the small bandage on his ear, and a small raw spot a few millimeters long was visible on the inside surface of his left ear.

The procedure apparently caused no disruption to the attorney general's work schedule. He appeared at a televised news conference Friday and spoke Monday at the Organization of American States headquarters.

As attorney general, Ashcroft is helping to direct one of the largest criminal investigations in U.S. history, stemming from the Sept. 11 terror attacks against New York and Washington.