July 26, 2007
Rove Subpoenaed As Specter Slams Dems' Special Prosecutor Request
UPDATED.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has ordered President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove, to testify in the U.S. attorney firings investigation. One of Rove's aides, Deputy Political Director J. Scott Jennings, was subpoenaed as well.
It is doubtful the White House will allow Rove and Jennings to testify under oath before the panel. The administration has used an executive privilege claim to rebuff Congress' demands for access to testimony and documents related to the firings.
But the evidence gathered so far by the committee has convinced a great many observers that the firings were politically motivated. Several longtime Bush allies have joined the chorus calling for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' ouster.
The Senate panel has yet to join its counterpart in the House in citing uncooperative White House or DOJ officials for contempt. To move past the executive privilege claim that will undoubtedly come in response to Rove's subpoena, the Senate committee will have to do so.
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said that the White House's refusal to accommodate Congress was an indictment in itself.
"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," the Vermont Democrat said in a statement. "This stonewalling is a dramatic break from the practices of every administration since World War II in responding to congressional oversight."
The White House, as per usual, dismissed the subpoenas as a meaningless political stunt.
"Every day this Congress gets a little more out of control," spokesman Tony Fratto said. Fratto accused Democrats of "neglecting the issues important to Americans," and charged that Leahy was simply "interested in headlines."
The Bush administration's obstinacy over the course of the probe is indeed unprecedented. Congress is doubly handicapped in this fight, since DOJ, the traditional tiebreaker in such disputes, is also a target of the investigation.
Earlier today, four of Leahy's colleagues asked Solicitor General Paul Clement to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Gonzales perjured himself during testimony on the U.S. attorney firings.
(TPM has a copy of the letter.)
The senators -- Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Russ Feingold and Sheldon Whitehouse -- are also members of the Judiciary Committee. In testimony yesterday before the committee, Gonzales contradicted his own earlier sworn accounts, along with those of other witnesses in the probe.
In a press conference this afternoon, ranking Republican Arlen Specter railed against the request, and indicated that Chairman Leahy was not on board, either.
"I think that Senator Schumer has made a practice of politicizing this matter," Specter told reporters. "Senator Schumer's not interested in looking at the record. He's interested in throwing down the gauntlet and making a story in tomorrow's newspapers."
Specter has previously accused Schumer of having a conflict of interest in the firings probe, because the New York Democrat is also head of the DSCC, the Senate's campaign fundraising arm.
Specter has backed congressional subpoenas of administration officials, and drew a distinction with the prosecutor request. "The inspector general generally does not conduct investigations with a view to a prosecution. The inspector general conducts investigation with a view to improprieties and recommendations for changes in policy," Specter said. "I think there's a little bit of Don Quixote here. People are riding off in all different directions at once."
Specter said that the four senators had not consulted him before sending out the request, adding, "Where there are matters which come to the committee, customarily Senator Leahy and I have conferred about them. Senator Leahy didn't mention anything about that to me, and I think the fact that he has not signed it is highly significant."
A Leahy spokesman said he could not immediately comment on Specter's statement.
Clement is the White House's Supreme Court litigator. The decision to appoint a special prosecutor falls on him, however, because Gonzales and his No. 2, Paul McNulty, have both recused themselves from the attorney firings investigation. McNulty has also testified on the matter, and in May announced he was going to resign.
The DOJ last appointed a special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation under intense political pressure. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from that probe, and his No. 2, James Comey, made the call.
Comey has played a pivotal role in the attorney firings investigation. The damning testimony he gave about an internal dispute over the White House's secret surveillance program has only fueled outrage at the department. Gonzales rebutted Comey's assertions yesterday.
Clement is considered an exceptionally talented litigator, but his sole client for the past two years has been the White House. Bush has repelled Democrats' efforts to sort out the firings at every turn; if Clement OKs the special prosecutor request, it probably won't be with Bush's blessing.
Posted at 3:47 PM
Posted to:
Alberto Gonzales, Arlen Specter, Attorney Scandal, Charles Schumer, Congress, James Comey, Patrick Leahy, Paul Clement, President Bush, Senate
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