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Judiciary Committee issues subpoena for attorney papers |
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By Klaus Marre and Susan Crabtree
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Posted: 04/10/07 08:11 PM [ET] |
The same day Senate Democrats sought to expand their inquiry into the matter, the House Judiciary Committee yesterday issued a subpoena for Department of Justice (DoJ) documents related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys .
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said he appreciated the documents the DoJ has supplied voluntarily thus far, but said they fall “far short” of the panel’s requests.
“Unfortunately, the Department has not indicated any meaningful willingness to find a way to meet our legitimate needs, and at this point further delay in receiving these materials will not serve any constructive purpose,” Conyers wrote to Gonzales.
The chairman added that DoJ is “withholding significant information” related to the investigation of the prosecutors’ firings, which has spurred Democratic outrage and even some Republicans to criticize Gonzales.
Conyers argued that the voluntary testimony of former Gonzales Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, which seemed to contradict public statements by the attorney general, as well as the declaration of former DoJ counsel and White House liaison Monica Goodling to invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege if asked to testify, add to the urgency of the investigation. Both Sampson and Goodling have resigned.
“Under these circumstances, you must understand why we cannot accept the department’s unilateral judgment as to how much of this information it needs to disclose, or its unilateral judgment as to whether limited viewing of information, on department premises and under department supervision, and with no copying or note-taking permitted, is sufficient to permit effective and efficient review,” Conyers said.
DoJ spokesman Brian Roehrkasse disagreed, countering that the department has already provided Congress with generous access to documents and interviews with DoJ officials.
“We have provided an extraordinary amount of information to the Congress so that they and the American people understand the process behind the decision to replace eight of 93 U.S. attorneys,” he said.
Roehrkasse also noted that privacy interests prevent the department from providing some of the documents requested involving individuals other than the former U.S. attorneys.
“Much of the information that the Congress seeks pertains to individuals other than the U.S. attorneys who resigned,” he said. “… Because there are individual privacy interests implicated by publicly releasing this information, it is unfortunate the Congress would choose this option. In light of these concerns, we will continue to work closely with congressional staff and we still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress.”
Senate Democrats yesterday also tugged on what they believe may be a whole new thread in the investigation: what sitting U.S. attorneys may have done to keep their job and steer clear of the DoJ firing line.
Several Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and both Democratic senators from Wisconsin yesterday called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to hand over documents relating to the prosecution of an aide on the Wisconsin governor’s staff.
Chairman Patrick Leahy (Vt.), as well as Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Russ Feingold (Wis.) and Herb Kohl (Wis.), sent a letter to Gonzales yesterday demanding to know whether politics played an “inappropriate” role in a case brought by the U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, Stephen Biskupic.
The aide, Georgia Thompson, worked for Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. Thompson was sentenced last year to 18 months in prison after she was convicted of manipulating the state Department of Administration bidding system and giving a contract to a travel agency that had contributed to Doyle’s campaign. She has said that she is not guilty and was just trying to save taxpayer money.
Last week a federal appeals court judge overturned Thompson’s conviction for insufficient evidence and ordered her immediate release.
“The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was reportedly so troubled by the insufficiency of the evidence against Ms. Thompson that it made the unusual decision to issue an order reversing Ms. Thompson’s conviction and releasing her from custody immediately after oral arguments in her appeal,” the senators wrote Gonzales.
In the past two weeks, Democrats have repeatedly asked the DoJ for documents related to the firings. They question whether politics played an improper role in decisions to fire eight prosecutors last year.
The hot political issue of voter fraud has cropped up repeatedly in Democratic congressional investigations into the matter. Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and former Washington state U.S. Attorney John McKay have alleged that their decision against pursuing voter-fraud cases against Democrats or Democratic groups may have played a role in the DoJ’s decision to fire them.
Gonzales’s former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, provided the committee with an approximately 30-page report concerning alleged voting improprieties in Wisconsin in 2004. According to media accounts, the executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party prepared the report and planned to give it to White House political adviser Karl Rove.
He also said during testimony before the committee March 29 that he believed Rove told Gonzales that U.S. attorneys weren’t pursuing voter-fraud cases aggressively enough in three jurisdictions, including New Mexico; subsequently Sampson said he added Iglesias’s name to the list of prosecutors to be dismissed.
Democratic senators want to know more about the circumstances surrounding the case against Thompson, asking for documents on the issue by the close of business this Friday. |
