White House to Congress: Nanny Nanny Boo Boo
By Paul Kiel - July 8, 2007, 11:33 AM
There are a number of deadlines for congressional subpoenas for White House documents and/or testimony approaching over the next couple weeks -- two, for instance, this week regarding the U.S. attorneys investigation. It seems that we'll soon learn how many different ways the White House can say, "no."
From The Washington Post:
The White House has decided to defy Congress's latest demand for information regarding the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys, sources familiar with the decision said yesterday. Such an action would escalate the constitutional struggle and propel it closer to a court showdown.Senate and House committees have directed President Bush to provide by tomorrow a detailed justification of his executive privilege claims and a full accounting of the documents he is withholding. But White House counsel Fred F. Fielding plans to tell lawmakers that he has already provided the legal basis for the claims and will not provide a log of the documents, the sources said.
The standoff suggests that neither side is prepared to budge in the fight over documents and testimony in the widening U.S. attorney investigation. Officials in both camps said no serious negotiations are taking place to resolve the dispute. Fielding plans to follow up his letter by further asserting executive privilege later this week, the sources said, directing former White House aides Harriet E. Miers and Sara M. Taylor not to testify in response to congressional subpoenas.
You can see last week's request from the committees for that log here. "A serious assertion of privilege," the chairmen wrote, "would include an effort to demonstrate to the Committees which documents, and which parts of those documents, are covered by any privilege that may apply." According to the Post's sources, "White House officials viewed the request as a backdoor attempt to get sensitive information about deliberations."
No comments:
Post a Comment