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BUSH INVOKES EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE TO DENY SUBPOENA
Truthout ^
| 12.13.01
| Associated Press
Posted on 12/14/2001 1:22:48 PM PST by Tweedle_Dumb&Dee
President Bush invoked executive privilege for the first time Thursday to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from a decades-old Boston murder to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe.
"I believe congressional access to these documents would be contrary to the national interest," Bush wrote in a memo ordering Attorney General John Ashcroft to withhold the documents from a House investigative committee that subpoenaed them.
The decision institutes a dramatic change in the way the administration intends to deal with Congress after years in which the Justice Department, sometimes reluctantly, shared sensitive investigative documents with lawmakers.
Republicans and Democrats alike excoriated the decision, suggesting Bush was creating a "monarchy" or "imperial" presidency to keep Congress for overseeing the executive branch and guarding against corruption. The Republican House committee chairman who sought the documents raised the possibility of taking Bush to court for contempt of Congress.
"Everyone is in agreement you guys are making a big mistake," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., told Justice lawyers at a hearing after the announcement. "We might be able to go to the (House) floor and take this thing to court."
The full House, controlled by Republicans, would have to vote to find Bush in contempt to start such a court battle.
In his memo to Ashcroft, the president explained his decision.
"Disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions," Bush wrote.
He added, "It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee. ... I have decided to assert executive privilege."
Burton decried the decision. "This is not a monarchy,"he said. "The legislative branch has oversight responsibility to make sure there is no corruption in the executive branch."
Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the committee, who frequently sparred with Burton during Clinton era investigations, agreed with his sometimes nemesis.
"An imperial presidency or an imperial justice department conflicts with the democratic principles of our nation," Waxman said.
The decision immediately affects a subpoena from Burton's House Government Reform Committee for documents related to the FBI's handling of mob informants in Boston dating to the 1960s.
More importantly, it sets a new policy in the works for months in which the administration will resist lawmakers' requests to view prosecutorial decision-making documents that have been routinely turned over to Congress in years past.
Executive privilege is a doctrine recognized by the courts that ensures presidents can get candid advice in private without fear of its becoming public.
The privilege, however, is best known for the unsuccessful attempts by former Presidents Nixon and Clinton to keep evidence secret during impeachment investigations.
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales recommended Bush invoke the privilege earlier this fall.
While invoking the privilege, Bush instructed Ashcroft to have the Justice Department "remain willing to work informally with the committee to provide such information as it can, consistent with these instructions and without violating the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers."
Burton's committee for months has been seeking Justice Department memos about prosecutors' decisions in cases involving the handling of mob informants in Boston, Democratic fund raising, a former Clinton White House official and a former federal drug enforcement agent.
The committee subpoenaed Ashcroft, demanding those documents in the fall and scheduled a hearing Thursday to examine the Boston case.
That case stems from revelations that Joseph Salvati of Boston spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence. Salvati was freed in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant.
Several such memos were shared with Congress during both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most recently, in the 1990s, such documents were turned over to the Whitewater, fund-raising, pardons and impeachment investigations by lawmakers.
But the concept of extending executive privilege to Justice Department decisions isn't new. During the Reagan years, the privilege was cited as the reason the department did not tell Congress about some memos in a high-profile environmental case.
And Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, advised Clinton in 1999 that he could invoke the privilege to keep from disclosing documents detailing department views on 16 pardon cases.
TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Executive Privilege for This!!! Notice the words uttered by the Demicraps and Rubicons alike to describe Herr Bush’s executive privilege action; “monarchy”, “imperial” and “imperial justice department.” And why is the gooood conservative, Christian President Bush protecting that m------e----a---n and evil liberal former president Clinton? Hmmm!!!!!
To: Tweedle_Dumb& Dee
No use in showing the Rats the evidence you have on them.
2
posted on
12/14/2001 1:32:02 PM PST
by
SGCOS
To: Tweedle_Dumb&Dee
3
posted on
12/14/2001 1:36:04 PM PST
by
Djarum
The invoking of executive privilege may have less to do with the documents requested, and more to do with the reason Congress wants them. Why do they want them, anyway? What are they investigating?
Clinton had a reason to protect his precious patootie, so he dragged his feet on subpeonas. Bush may be more interested in establishing a more defined criteria for Congressional inquisitiveness, and access to Administration record.
Congress has an oversight responsibility of the Administration, but documents should be requested for just cause. What are the documents they want, and why do they want them? Are they on a fishing expedition? Perhaps Pres. Bush simply wants to hold Congress to a higher standard of justification than simply, "Because we just want to look at them..."
And it's ashame that Dan Burton gave aid and comfort to the likes of Henry Waxman and other Democrats, without first seeking to learn or understand the President's intent in invoking executive privilege.
BTW, one of no less a stature than Mark "F. Lee" Levin of Landmark League Foundation agreed today on the Lee Rodgers radio program on KSFO in SF that Bush had every right, and probably every reason, to deny Congress' subpeona.
4
posted on
12/14/2001 1:37:44 PM PST
by
My2Cents
To: SGCOS
I do not understand the meaning of your post. Are saying that we should not release the information of cases that are closed and no longer open? What about the truth and open government or are these principles additional casualities of the "war on terrorism"?
To: My2Cents
Were you just as adamant in your defense of Clinton's refusal to turn over documents as you now seem to defend the current Prez?
To: Tweedle_Dumb& Dee
The release of the documents from the Clinton era would reveal just how much of a lap dog Reno and her tribe was, and the Rats would all be crying and whining that the documents were released only for political purposes.
Releasing the documents puts the Administration in a no-win situation.
7
posted on
12/14/2001 1:51:43 PM PST
by
SGCOS
To: Tweedle_Dumb&Dee
I think the issue here is that Congress will use this subpoena power to demand access to information related to investigations involving themselves or their cronies. As soon as you hear that one of the cases involves a decades-old murder in Boston in which the FBI was used to frame an innocent man, you know there is a close connection to an infamous Massachussetts family of bloated drunks.
To: all
The more I think of this, the more I know I voted for a Clinton in Republican clothing.
To: LuvItOrLeaveIt
I'm willing to wait and see what develops but hope the reason is that President Bush made a deal with Daschle that the Clinton issue would be dropped in exchange for the passage of a stimulus package.
10
posted on
12/14/2001 2:12:27 PM PST
by
Peach
To: Peach
Yeah, I'd like to see Clinton dropped too1 From about 15,000.
To: Peach
Let me see if I get this straight, in order to pass a stimulus package - not necessarily a tax cut - the current President is willing to abandon equal justice for all. In this distorted view of politics, it make imperfect sense to me.
To: My2Cents
"Mark "F. Lee" Levin of Landmark League Foundation agreed today on the Lee Rodgers radio program on KSFO in SF that Bush had every right, and probably every reason, to deny Congress' subpeona." Interesting!
13
posted on
12/14/2001 5:24:01 PM PST
by
ChaseR
To: Tweedle_Dumb&Dee
King George and King Klinton.
To: Dan from Michigan
Interesting experience living tyranny, isn't it?
Comment #16 Removed by Moderator
White House OKs access to mob files from Hub FBI "``We've finally reached an agreement with the Justice Department to see the documents we need to see to move forward with this investigation,'' said Burton...
The lawyers can read the documents kept in Justice Department files but cannot make copies. "
Part of the subpoena not addressed:
"14. Anyreport or memorandum by Robert Conrad recommending the appointment ofa special counsel to investigate campaign fundraising matters, and all memoranda drafted in response to Mr. Conrad’s memorandum, including any replies or rebuttals by Mr. Conrad.
15. All declination memoranda relating to Mark E. Middleton. " (quote from Burton's subpoena).
17
posted on
03/22/2002 3:52:57 PM PST
by
mrsmith
To: boston_liberty
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