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Jennings frustrates Senate Democrats |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 08/02/07 01:08 PM [ET] |
White House Deputy Director of Political Affairs Scott Jennings frustrated Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday with his refusal to answer questions about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
Jennings’s testimony appeared to do little to advance the Democrats’ investigation of the firing of several U.S. attorneys.
“Senator, pursuant to the president’s assertion of executive privilege over consideration, deliberations or communications related to the U.S. attorneys matter, I must respectfully decline to answer your question at this time,” Jennings said repeatedly. He several times said he did not recall events.
Senior White House aide Karl Rove, who is Jennings’s boss, also was subpoenaed to testify but did not appear before the panel.
“Karl Rove, who refused to comply with Senate subpoenas, spoke publicly in sessions at Troy University in Alabama and at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas about the U.S. attorney firings when the scandal first became public,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said. “Yet he doesn’t appear when he’s summoned before Congress to finally tell the truth. He refuses to tell this committee, with legislative oversight and advice-and-consent responsibility for the Department of Justice and the United States attorneys, about his role in targeting well-respected U.S. attorneys for firing and then seeking to cover up his role and that of his staff in the scandal.”
Leahy again accused the White House of “Nixonian stonewalling.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) strongly rejected those assertions.
He charged Democrats with making “demands that they knew the executive branch would resist” and asking questions “they know witnesses cannot answer and then they yell about a cover-up.”
“They chose to cast mistakes or mishandling first as inconsistencies, then as improprieties and then even as illegalities, which nobody’s been able to show,” Hatch added.
Democrats were visibly frustrated with their lack of progress.
One exchange during questions from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) best illustrated the mood in the hearing room.
When Jennings answered a question to discuss a breakfast meeting with New Mexico GOP officials but refused to answer a follow-up question about whether a Republican state official complained about a U.S. attorney at another time, Schumer vented his frustration.
“How is one privileged and one not? It depends — if you’re having eggs it’s privileged, and if you’re having Corn Flakes it’s not? I mean, I don’t get it,” Schumer said.
“Senator, I’m doing the best I can,” Jennings said. “And, believe me, this is likely as frustrating for me as it is for you, but I’m doing the best —”
At that point, Leahy intervened: “No trust me, it is not.”
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