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The chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday began enforcing the five subpoenas that the white House challenged this week, setting off on the path to a contempt of Congress citation. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) wrote to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, asking President Bush to relinquish or expand upon his broad claim of executive privilege to withhold documents and testimony relating to the mass firings of U.S. attorneys. “[Y]our blanket assertion of executive privilege belies any good faith attempt to determine where privilege truly does and does not apply,” Leahy and Conyers wrote. The chairmen requested specific, document-by-document analysis of where executive privilege claims apply to the bloc of records that the Democrats seek. Obtaining a full explanation of the executive privilege claim — only the second such assertion of Bush’s presidency — would allow Leahy and Conyers to “facilitate ruling on those claims and our consideration of appropriate action to enforce our subpoenas.” Once Leahy and Conyers issue their ruling on the legal justification for the privilege claim, one or both judiciary committees are free to take up a contempt of Congress citation for the White House. Once a majority in one or both chambers votes to approve the citation, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia then would be called on to empanel a grand jury. A deadline of July 9 was set for a reply from Fielding “before we move to proceedings to rule on your claims and consider whether the White House is in contempt of Congress,” the Democrats wrote. Leahy and Conyers cited several precedents in Supreme Court case law for their pursuit of the U.S. attorneys oversight inquiry. In 1957, as part of the case Watkins v. U.S., the Court found that Congress’s power to investigate encompasses both enforcement of existing law and “‘corruption, maladministration, or inefficiencies’ in the executive branch,” the chairmen wrote. Yet the Democrats may face an uphill battle in securing sufficient GOP support for the contempt citation after next week’s recess. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary panel, had joined Leahy in rejecting the White House’s offer of un-transcribed, off-the-record interviews with officials. But Specter backtracked on Thursday and suggested that lawmakers accept the administration’s terms while reserving the right to enforce subpoenas in the future. “Now that the president has invoked executive privilege on the issue, I think we ought to give consideration to bringing in those individuals and finding out what we can under the president's terms,” Specter told reporters. |
