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  ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' speech Tuesday to Washington University students and faculty was met with protests over his policies -- and the $34,500 fee he is charging.

  Gonzales' visit was sponsored by College Republicans. He was invited after a speakers bureau representing the former attorney general approached the university's undergraduate student government group.

  Gonzales resigned under fire last year as attorney general after the firings of eight U.S. attorneys provoked a backlash by lawmakers who questioned whether the moves were politically motivated.

  Gonzales told Congress repeatedly he could not remember what had happened.

  Neil Patel, president of the Student Union government group, said $34,500 in speaking and other fees including air fare, lodging, security and dinner, comes from undergraduate student activities fees.

  The total speakers series budget for the year is $50,000.

  "The price is steep," said Patel, a registered Democrat, "but we're about promoting an equal exchange of ideas. We wanted to inform students what he did."

  "It's fine for him to speak, but it's embarrassing that we're contributing $30,000 to his legal defense fund," said Richard Kuhns, a criminal law professor.

  "He's a disgrace to the country, really. There's no reason to believe he's going to have anything important to say. He's had opportunities to speak before Congress. What anybody's getting for this $30,000 speech is beyond me."

  Gonzales' 6 p.m. speech just off campus was closed to the media, as was his meeting with detractors an hour earlier.

  But a student attending the speech said Gonzales spoke of hard decisions he made in the name of protecting America. He admitted he made some mistakes, but refused to answer what those were, said 20-year-old student Jackie Alexander.

  While some in the audience stood and clapped, others booed and faced backward.

  One person in the audience shouted to Gonzales, "You should be in jail."

  By 4 p.m., about 200 protesters, most dressed in Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuits or in the black hoods of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, converged at the speech venue for political theater, music and remarks by civil libertarians and others opposed to Gonzales' policies in the Bush administration.

  "A-L-B-E-R-T-O, shut down Guantanamo!" they shouted. "Stop the torture. Stop the hate."

  Sister Jean Abbott, who counsels survivors of torture and war trauma in St. Louis, urged the crowd to "let your outrage be shown," adding, "it gives my clients hope."

  Denise Lieberman, a constitutional law expert at Washington University School of Law, told protesters Gonzales has a right to speak, but they have just as much of a right to speak out against his support for torture, military tribunals and unchecked presidential power.

  "We are here to speak out," she said. "Our democracy demands it."

  Ryan Winograd, vice president of College Republicans, said the group wanted to bring a controversial figure to the university to spark political debate among students.

  On-campus events in the last two weeks featured overviews and discussion of Gonzales by university faculty.

  On Friday, an op-ed piece in the student newspaper penned by a dozen of the university's law professors blasted the Gonzales visit as a "sad reminder of the Bush administration's assault on the rule of law and its quest for an imperial presidency."

  The piece said Gonzales presided over "unprecedented politicization" of the Justice Department and played a major role in President Bush's "efforts to achieve unchecked power in the war on terror." It also cites the Gonzales-commissioned Justice Department memo that narrowly defines torture as well as his memo that referred to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "obsolete."

  Graduate student Adam Shriver, who is part of the university Peace Coalition, said about 30 college Democrats met with Gonzales privately, but most opponents instead participated in protests.

  Gonzales was booed, heckled and called a criminal and a liar by students while giving a speech in November at the University of Florida for $40,000. Gonzales defended the Bush administration's treatment of terror suspects and did not engage the rowdy crowd.

  (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

  APTV 02-19-08 1947CST