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Washington (Platts)--4Nov2011/612 pm EDT/2212 GMT The White House Friday rejected a subpoena issued by the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee to produce internal communications and other documents related to now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee. In a letter to the Republican leaders of the committee, White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler called the subpoena a partisan "vast fishing expedition" without legal justification. "The committee's extremely broad request for documents -- now a subpoena -- is a significant intrusion on Executive Branch interests, particularly given that you have not made any effort to tailor the request to...

Dem compares GOP to 'birthers' for issuing Solyndra subpoenaBy Ben Geman - 11/03/11 03:12 PM ET Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is comparing Republicans who voted to subpoena the White House for Solyndra documents to critics of President Obama who allege he wasn’t born in the United States. Schakowsky was among a parade of Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats who slammed the subpoena vote Thursday, calling it a political attack that ignores White House efforts to work with the committee on its request for documents. “I doubt that anything the White House would have agreed to yesterday would have been sufficient....

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to subpoena the White House for all internal communications related to the failed solar company Solyndra. The subpoena escalates the ongoing battle between the White House and Republicans over a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar panel maker that filed for bankruptcy in early September, setting off a firestorm in Washington. Republicans have pummeled the White House over the loan guarantee for weeks, using Solyndra’s bankruptcy to challenge the administration’s green energy agenda. The committee’s investigative panel voted 14-9, along party lines to subpoena the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee on Wednesday authorized a subpoena against the Homeland Security Department for information about illegal immigrants who have been identified but not deported. The authorization cleared the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement by a 7-4, party line vote. Democrats voted against the measure, saying it was premature to issue a subpoena because Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is cooperating with the committee. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says the subpoena authorization is necessary because the Obama administration hasn't responded quickly enough to his request, which was made in...

The week ahead: House GOP set to subpoena White House over SolyndraBy Andrew Restuccia - 10/31/11 08:47 AM ET House Republicans are expected to subpoena the White House this week for more documents about failed solar firm Solyndra. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel will meet Thursday to vote on a resolution to authorize a White House subpoena. The vote comes after the White House rejected Republicans’ request for all internal communications related to Solyndra, noting that the administration has already provided more than 70,000 pages of documents to the committee. Read more about the subpoena vote here,...

Mike Vanderboegh: writes that when history records the dreadful events leading to the Project Gunwalker scandal, and its subsequent cover-up, the mainstream media will not be treated kindly." In fact, they will be the subject of ridicule and scorn for their complicity to the attempt to hide illegal activity and cover-ups by either refusing to report it or by slanting its reporting to imply that the key players at the top did no wrong. Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News. Attkisson's has been a lone voice, an oasis of investigative integrity in a desert of journalistic malpractice

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice. "Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged," committee chairman Darrell E. Issa said. "The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that Justice officials have tried to avoid since this investigation began eight months ago. It's time we know the whole truth." In fact, the committee's legal assault on the stone wall surrounding the Justice Department’s collusion with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is only a waypoint...

Although several members of Congress have now called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over Operation Fast and Furious, he appeared to dismiss the congressional investigation into the program as not “important” when reporters asked about it on Tuesday. “We have sent thousands of pages of documents,” Holder said in response to a question about whether he’ll be complying with new subpoenas expected to be heading his way this week. “We’ll look at the subpoenas. I’m sure we will undoubtedly comply with them.” “But what I want the American people to understand is that in complying with those subpoenas...

Fulton County grand jury issues subpoena for probe of APS cheating scandalPosted by Miranda Sain on Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:15 PM A criminal investigation has begun into the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal — and former Superintendent Beverly Hall could play a large role, the AJC reports: The subpoena, issued by a Fulton County grand jury, seeks comprehensive information dating back to 1999 regarding teacher transfers and demotions, bonuses paid to employees for improved test scores and copies of complaints from parents, teachers or students of possible improprieties related to Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests. The subpoena also seeks signed...

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is slowly but surely becoming an albatross around the neck of this administration and there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix to the problem. Ever since they opened up their assault on Boeing back in April the board has been drawing fire from all sides. And now, apparently tired of the foot dragging and obstructionist tactics being employed, Darrel Issa has let the NLRB know that it’s time to put up or shut up. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has subpoenaed the National Labor Relations Board for documents...

President Obama's senior appointees at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget took another step this week toward a potentially epic confrontation with Congress by ignoring a document subpoena issued by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The subpoena is for thousands of documents requested months ago by the committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations concerning OMB's evaluation of a Department of Energy economic stimulus program loan guarantee worth $535 million for Solyndra, Inc., which makes solar energy panels.

Rep. Darrell Issa says he’s had to go directly to the field to get information about Project Gunrunner because the Obama administration has stonewalled on all of the information subpoenas they’ve been sent. But now it’s their turn. Issa says that he’s ready to subpoena people in the Obama administration for hearings this summer. He points out that this isn’t the discovery phase of the process because they know exactly what happened. They now want to know what the administration was thinking by approving a process that sent high-powered weapons to the ‘worst of the worst’ on both sides of...

Representative Darrell Issa on his Exchange with Attorney General Eric Holder May 3, 2011 - Darrel Issa questions Eric Holder on Gunnruner

Chairman Issa Chastises ATF for Refusal to Comply with Subpoena "If you do not comply with the subpoena, the Committee will be forced to commence contempt proceedings."   WASHINGTON. D.C. – Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today, in a letter to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson, criticized the Director for failing to produce any documents in response to a subpoena issued March 31. The subpoena was issued after ATF and Department of Justice officials failed to cooperate in good faith with...

In the Paul Newman classic "Absence of Malice" a federal investigator played by Wilford Brimley is trying to get to the bottom of a case that has gone off the rails and threatens the careers of everyone associated with it. In a pivotal scene, Brimley sets all the involved parties in a room and tells them his deputy "has a briefcase over there full of subpoenas." "Wondrous things, the subpoena. I hand you one and you have to tell me anything I want to know about whatever's on them or you go to jail. Now two things are going to...

After ATF Blows Deadline, Issa Issues Subpoena for Project Gunrunner PapersFoxNews.com Published April 01, 2011 Republican Rep. Darrell Issa fired off a subpoena Friday to the Justice Department agency in the middle of a cross-border gun sales operation that has been blamed for a massive flow of arms to Mexican drug cartels and possibly the death of a U.S. border agent. Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives provide him documents related to "Project Gunrunner" after the agency failed to respond to questions by a Wednesday deadline....

With the showdown between top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Janet Napolitano heating up, Napolitano has dispatched a 21-man team to respond to Issa’s document and testimony requests, a DHS source says. The team includes 15 lawyers and six “support staff” who have logged over 600 hours working to find documents and review them before sending more than 3,000 pages to Issa, the source says.(Snip) Tuesday, Issa subpoenaed the testimony of two key career officials at DHS, the first time Issa is using the force of law to compel information from the

There are many reasons to celebrate the Republican takeover of the People's House this morning. One of them will be the ability of Republicans to pull away the curtain and see what the Obama team has really been up to as it bullied Americans over the last two years. Congressman Darrell Issa will be very busy as head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, holding hearings and calling in federal officials to testify about a wide variety of actions: the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case being among them.

Want a sneak preview for what the 2011 legislative calendar has in store? The Intrade prediction market is giving the GOP a 57-percent shot of taking back the House of Representatives this fall, meaning it is more likely to happen than not. And a lot of polls seem to be indicating the same thing. But should that happen, then what? According to Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the House Republicans should exercise their power to subpoena and hold continuous hearings. Speaking to a gathering for the GOP Youth Convention on July 22 in Washington, D.C., she emphasized this point. “Oh, I...

The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents. After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people.