July 10, 2007
Will Harriet Miers Show?
CORRECTED.
The House Judiciary Committee is holding another hearing on the U.S. attorney firings scandal on Thursday, with former White House counsel Harriet Miers a special guest of the proceedings. Miers did send an RSVP of sorts, through an attorney, and it has committee members confused.
In a letter sent to committee leaders yesterday, Miers attorney George Manning wrote, "I must inform you that in light of the president's assertion of executive privilege, Ms. Miers cannot provide the documents and testimony that the committee seeks."
President Bush yesterday invoked executive privilege to deny Congress access to testimony and documents from two former aides, Miers and Sara Taylor.
But a congressional aide with knowledge of the subpoena proceedings said Miers' attorney had already informed the committee that Miers would, in fact, testify.
That verbal agreement was reached yesterday [PDF] during negotiations with committee lawyers over the phone. The aide said committee leaders were surprised by Manning's letter, but noticed he did not specifically say Miers would not appear. So as far as they're concerned, they expect to see Miers in the hearing room on Thursday.
"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sánchez confirmed that former White House counsel Harriet Miers will attend Thursday's hearing concerning the US Attorney firings," read a press release sent out by the committee this afternoon.
A likely scenario is that Miers' attorney agreed she would testify, knowing that either (a) Bush would order her not to, or (b) Bush wouldn't, in which case Miers wouldn't have much of a choice. Miers can defy Bush's order and offer the committee her oral testimony and requested documents, but that is unlikely, considering her close relationship with the president, which critics say led him to nominate her to the Supreme Court despite questionable qualifications.
The committee has little to lose by going on with the hearings. If Miers, now practicing law in Texas, doesn't show, it will cast the White House in a negative light and revive chatter about the attorney firings story. The aide said that if Miers does appear, the committee anticipates she will invoke privilege on a question-by-question basis. The spectacle of Miers methodically refusing questions one by one would be another political win for the Conyers camp.
Should the executive privilege claim rule the day, the committee will vote on whether the claim is valid. The majority will probably decide it is not, in which event Conyers may float another vote on whether to hold Miers in contempt of Congress. The aide noted that there is less bipartisan unity on the attorney firings matter in the House committee than in the Senate panel, where the ranking Republican, Arlen Specter, has largely sided with Democrats throughout the probe.
Marty Lederman of Balkinization has a step-by-step rundown (caution: legalese ahead) of Congress' next steps. Read the correspondence between Miers' attorney and the committee here [PDF]. Beltway Miers sightings should be sent here.
(A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that Arlen Specter "has hinted at a willingness to take Bush to court." The Gate regrets the error.)
Posted at 7:00 PM
Posted to:
Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Congress, Harriet Miers, House, President Bush
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