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Leahy renews contempt threat |
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By Susan Crabtree
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Posted: 11/29/07 12:08 PM [ET] |
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday issued what appeared to be a final threat to the White House to comply with congressional subpoenas for information and testimony related to the firings of several U.S. attorneys.
In a formal written ruling, Leahy directed the White House to comply immediately with subpoenas for information and testimony that were issued earlier this year or face the consequences.
He argued that White House claims that executive privilege and immunity protected them from testifying before his committee and handing over documents were “overbroad, unsubstantiated and not legally valid.”
Leahy's ruling denying the White House's claims of immunity and executive privilege sets the stage for the full Senate Judiciary Committee to consider contempt citations against the White House. It could do so as early as next Thursday at its general business meeting. If the full committee approves the citation, a
crowded Senate calendar likely would prevent it from reaching the floor for a vote before the December recess.
House Democrats have already moved forward with contempt charges against the White House for failing to respond to congressional subpoenas for information and testimony related to the attorneys scandal. Leahy’s statement is the clearest indication yet that Senate Democrats may take the same tack.
Leahy issued subpoenas to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former White House political director Sara M. Taylor in June, and to former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and White House Deputy Political Director J. Scott Jennings in late July.
Bolten produced none of the White House documents compelled by subpoena, Leahy said, and Rove failed to appear before the committee to testify as required by subpoena after the White House claimed that he was immune from testifying.
Taylor and Jennings did appear before the committee for sworn testimony. However, both cited the White House’s claim of executive privilege and declined to answer many of the committee’s questions about their roles in the dismissals of U.S. attorneys.
“I have given the White House’s claims of executive privilege and immunity careful consideration,” Leahy wrote in a letter sent Thursday to White House counsel Fred Fielding. “I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation.”
The White House did not immediately respond to Leahy.
The Senate and House judiciary committees since early this year have investigated the U.S. attorney firings, as well as whether the Department of Justice has been improperly politicized.
Leahy and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) moved to issue the subpoenas after the White House rejected the terms Democrats demanded for the testimony and materials. The House panel approved contempt citations for Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in connection to their probe of the U.S. attorney ousters. The investigations led to the resignation of former attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the departure of several senior
Justice officials.
In early November, Conyers readied a contempt-of-Congress citation against the White House for failing to comply with subpoenas for documents and testimony from Bolten and Miers. Conyers filed the contempt resolution with the clerk of the House in a move intended to give the administration one last chance to comply with the subpoenas.
The House contempt vote had been scheduled for late November, but then was put off until mid-December, according to House Democratic aides.
If Democrats pass the measure and the White House continues to assert executive privilege to deny the access, a constitutional showdown between the two branches could reach the Supreme Court. |
