By James Rowley, Bloomberg
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — A key U.S. Senate Democrat threatened White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and three former presidential aides with contempt of Congress for continued refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations into nine U.S. attorney firings.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, in a formal ruling, rejected President George W. Bush’s claim of executive privilege in refusing to turn over White House documents on the firings or let top aides discuss their role in the dismissals. Leahy ordered Bolten and three former aides to comply with the subpoenas or risk contempt proceedings.
Bush’s former top political adviser, Karl Rove, refused to appear before the committee in August. Two former White House political aides, Sara Taylor and J. Scott Jennings, refused to answer many questions from senators when they testified at hearings on whether the firings were politically motivated.
“It is obvious that the reasons given for these firings were contrived as part of a cover-up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort,” Leahy said. Leahy did not specify when he would seek contempt citations, which would have to be approved by his committee and the full Senate.
Congressional committees are investigating whether Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers directed the ouster of U.S. attorneys for allegedly failing to aggressively probe claims of voter fraud against groups allied with the Democratic Party. The inquiry also focused on whether the firings were intended to thwart investigations of Republicans.
Political Agenda
Leahy said the evidence showed that “officials from the highest political ranks at the White House, including Mr. Rove, manipulated the Justice Department into its own political arm to pursue a partisan political agenda.”
The senator cited the firing of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias after Rove complained to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about a lack of federal voter-fraud prosecutions in the state.
Gonzales’s inability to explain the firings lost him support among both Democrats and Republicans, and he resigned in September.
Justice Department e-mails turned over to Congress showed that the firings were sought by Rove and Miers and were carried out in close coordination with the White House staff.
Bolten refused to comply with House and Senate subpoenas to turn over documents that Congress considers under the control of the president’s chief of staff.
The House Judiciary Committee has already voted contempt citations against Bolten and Miers, who ignored a subpoena to testify before the House panel investigating the firings. The full House hasn’t scheduled a vote on the citation.
During confirmation hearings last month, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said presidential aides can’t be prosecuted for contempt of Congress, a criminal misdemeanor, if legal advice from the Justice Department formed the basis of Bush’s executive privilege claim. More…
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