Kia Franklin
Bush Continues to Invoke (read: Abuse) Executive Privilege
Bush’s latest excercise of executive privilege came this morning as he reasserted the privilege to deny Congress’ subpoenas for the testimony of former White House aides Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor about the U.S. Attorney firings scandals. Instead, the president offered to make Miers, Taylor, political strategist Karl Rove and their aides available for closed-door interviews by the Judiciary committees, without transcripts and not under oath. Congress rejected that proposal. There has been significant back and forth between Congress, the Judiciary, and the White House, what this morning’s Washington Post article calls a “slow-motion legal waltz” toward federal court proceedings over the issue. The article continues:
White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers’ demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege…House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers [issued this response]:
“Contrary 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,” the Michigan Democrat said in a statement. Continue Reading
Posted at 11:19 AM, Jul 09, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
