Thursday, June 28, 2007

White House Rejects Subpoenas on Firings of U.S. Prosecutors

The White House asserted executive privilege and rejected two subpoenas from lawmakers probing last year's firings of eight U.S. prosecutors.
"The president has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents," White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont and Representative John Conyers of Michigan, chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.

The White House resistance is likely to touch off a constitutional showdown over Congress's ability to investigate the firing of prosecutors and the president's ability to obtain frank counsel from advisers.

"The principles at stake here are of the utmost importance," Fielding said in the letter to lawmakers. "Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly and without inhibition while deliberating and working to advise the president."
I thought Dick Cheney was not part of the executive branch? Lets all watch watch while the Republicans, who insisted Bill Clinton testify about a private affair, rally around this decision by the President. This is a criminal administration and needs to be held accountable.

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