WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Wednesday the FBI had not sought a single record from a library or business under a part of the Patriot Act widely criticized as opening Americans’ reading habits or personal information to undue government scrutiny.

In a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller obtained by The Associated Press, Ashcroft said he decided to disclose the previously classified information to “counter the troubling amount of public distortion and misinformation” surrounding section 215 of the anti-terrorism law.

“I know you share my concern that the public not be misled regarding the manner in which the U.S. Department of Justice, and the FBI in particular, have been utilizing the authorities provided” in the law, Ashcroft wrote to Mueller.

“The number of times section 215 has been used to date is zero,” Ashcroft wrote.

Ashcroft recently completed a 16-city tour to defend the Patriot Act as an essential part of the fight against terrorism.