by Frank James
White House Counsel Fred Fielding has officially informed Congress by letter that President Bush is asserting executive privilege, declining to allow former White House aides to testify before Congress and refusing to hand over to Congress documents related to the controversial firing of federal prosecutors. Congress had subpoenaed both the documents and the testimony.
This from Fielding’s letter to Congress:
“…The assertion of Executive Privilege here is intended to protect a fundamental interest of the Presidency: the necessity that a President receive candid advice from his advisors and that those advisors be able to communicate freely and openly with the President, with each other, and with others inside and outside the Executive Branch. In the present setting, where the President’s authority to appoint and remove U.S. Attorneys is at stake, the institutional interest of the Executive Branch is very strong.”
The move was expected and shifts the action back to Congress where Democratic lawmakers who control the Senate and House Judiciary committees have said they’re willing to bring contempt of Congress charges against the White House which in turn will lead to an inevitable court fight.Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI,) House Judiciary Committee chair, issued the following statement:
“We are extremely disappointed with the White House letter. While we remain willing to negotiate with the White House, they adhere to their unacceptable all-or-nothing position, and now will not even seek to properly justify their privilege claims. Contrary to what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the Courts that will decide whether an invocation of Executive Privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally.”
More Top Picks Best Label Printers
And here’s a statement from Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah,) the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law which has held a number of hearings on the matter of the fired prosecutors:
“Many months, thousands of pages, and a score of witnesses ago, the White House made an offer to the Judiciary Committee that would have protected the President’s ability to receive candid counsel while allowing the committee to complete its investigation. The President has appropriately decided to protect the internal deliberations of his staff by utilizing a constitutionally recognized privilege. This decision will undoubtedly raise hackles of ‘conspiracy’ from the usual suspects on Capitol Hill. If those same people would spend as much time getting to the truth as they do in grasping for headlines, this investigation would have concluded months ago. While executive privilege is not absolute, neither is congressional inquiry.”