February 14, 2008
House GOP Walks Out Over Contempt Vote, FISA
UPDATED.
Enraged House Republicans staged a walkout from the floor after Democrats sought a contempt of Congress vote for White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers.
"We will not stand for this and we will not stay for this," said Minority Leader John Boehner, speaking from the House floor. "I would ask my House Republican colleagues and those who believe that we should be here protecting the American people to not vote on this bill. Let's just get up and leave."
And with that, a few dozen House GOP lawmakers got up and left. They convened on the Capitol steps to address the cameras.
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Posted at 3:53 PM
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Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Congress, Harriet Miers, Homeland Security, House, President Bush, Senate, Terrorism
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December 19, 2007
WH Lawyers May Have Encouraged Destruction Of CIA Tapes
One day after a federal judge ignored the Justice Department's objections and ordered a hearing into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes, the New York Times is reporting that at least four high-ranking White House lawyers may have had a role in the decision to destroy the video evidence.
Citing "current and former administration and intelligence officials," the Times names four White House officials -- former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington, former senior National Security Council lawyer John Bellinger and former White House counsel Harriet Miers -- who "took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives" from al-Qaida.
The Times' sources reportedly gave "conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed."
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Posted at 7:46 AM
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Alberto Gonzales, Bush Administration, CIA, Harriet Miers, Michael Hayden, Michael Mukasey, Terrorism
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November 05, 2007
House Judiciary Cmte. Files Miers/Bolten Contempt Report
The House Judiciary Committee has filed an 862-page report [PDF] recommending that lawmakers find former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten in contempt for refusing to testify or provide documents in an investigation into the U.S. attorney firings of last year.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to bring a vote on the criminal contempt citation to the floor, though the timing of that has not been announced. If a simple majority of the House does find Miers and/or Bolten in contempt, the matter will be referred to D.C.'s U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Taylor. And herein lies yet another speed bump in congressional Democrats' quest to get to the bottom of those firings.
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Posted at 6:37 PM
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Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Congress, Harriet Miers, House, Michael Mukasey, President Bush
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August 29, 2007
Daydreaming About Gonzales' Successor
The obits on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are borderline gleeful, and for that reason it will be a good day indeed when Washington no longer has Al Gonzales to kick around anymore. There's little disagreement on how good Gonzales was at his job (not very) or whether he stayed on the job too long (he did). Now Washington insiders are playing their second-favorite sport: the speculation-a-thon.
Will President Bush really move DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff over to DOJ? Will there be an ugly nomination battle? And what will become of Gonzales, the man known affectionately (and not so affectionately) as Gonzo?
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Posted at 9:46 AM
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Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Harriet Miers, President Bush
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July 25, 2007
House Panel Cites Bolten & Miers For Contempt
UPDATED.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 to cite two top White House aides -- chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers -- for contempt over their failure to cooperate with the panel's investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
The citations were approved on a party-line vote, as congressional Democrats stepped up their efforts to confront the White House directly over the prosecutors' dismissals. The decision is Congress' latest challenge to the White House's executive privilege claim, which Bush and his aides have invoked in their refusals to submit documents and provide testimony in the probe.
Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor subject to prison terms of up to one year and fines up to $100; it is considered a serious constitutional charge. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., conceded that the president has power to fire U.S. attorneys, but he added that the issue is "whether any administration can terminate or retain such individuals in order to influence pending criminal investigations or influence an election."
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., proposed the panel hold off on the contempt move and ask the House clerk to file a civil lawsuit to settle the issue of executive privilege. He said he feared the contempt citation case could lose in court and jeopardize future congressional efforts to gather information.
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Posted at 3:14 PM
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Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Congress, Harriet Miers, House, President Bush, Senate
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July 11, 2007
Committee Weighs Options After Miers Snub
UPDATED.
Former White House counsel Harriet Miers plans to ignore a House Judiciary Committee subpoena calling for her testimony on the Hill tomorrow. Miers' attorney informed committee chairman John Conyers and Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law head Linda Sánchez last night that Miers would not appear, one day after informing Conyers that she would appear.
Miers' attorney, George Manning, confirmed that Miers would not be appearing before the committee after all in a telephone interview this afternoon. Manning would not answer any questions on why Miers had changed her mind.
About 10 minutes later, at around 3:22, the House Judiciary Committee released Conyers' and Sanchez's reactions to the turnabout. "I am extremely disappointed in the White House's direction to Ms. Miers that she not even show up to assert the privilege before the Committee," Conyers said. "We understand that the White House has asserted privilege over both her testimony and documents, and we are prepared to consider those claims at tomorrow's hearing."
Subcommittee members are expected to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow, as scheduled. Miers' absence will be recorded, but it is unclear where the panel goes from there. A congressional aide with knowledge of the proceedings said that a discussion of how to move forward following her failure to appear is ongoing. But there is no indication the Judiciary Committee plans to drop its pursuit of her testimony, the aide added.
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Posted at 5:25 PM
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Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Harriet Miers, President Bush
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Taylor's Account Of Firings Paints Benevolent White House Picture
Former White House aide Sara Taylor, answering a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee, bobbed through a legal minefield this morning as lawmakers lobbed questions she could not answer.
"In light of the president's direction, I will answer faithfully those questions that are appropriate for a private citizen to answer while also doing my best to respect the president's directive that his staff's communications be privileged," she said in an opening statement.
Taylor had been ordered to testify in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys late last year. But on Monday, White House counsel Fred Fielding notified the committee that Taylor and Harriet Miers would not divulge to Congress matters concerning "White House consideration, deliberations or communications, whether internal or external, relating to the possible dismissal or appointment of United States Attorneys, including consideration of possible responses to congressional and media inquiries on the United States Attorneys matter."
Despite the restrictions, Taylor was able to offer a starkly different version of events from others who have testified on the matter.
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Posted at 1:50 PM
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Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Harriet Miers, President Bush, Sara Taylor
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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.
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Posted at 7:00 PM
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Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Congress, Harriet Miers, House, President Bush
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