House Judiciary Committee Files Suit to Compel Former White House Council & Chief of Staff to Cooperate

By Mike Lillis

In a move to test the John Adams’ statement that the nation should be one of laws and not men, the House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit (pdf) Monday against two White House aides—one current and one former—who have refused to cooperate with a congressional investigation surrounding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. The Bush administration, citing executive privilege, has said that both Harriet Miers, former White House council, and chief of staff Josh Bolten are immune to congressional requests urging cooperation in the investigation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement Monday rejecting that claim.

Congress, on behalf of the American people, is clearly entitled to the information that is being sought – it involves the politicization of the Justice Department and law enforcement, not national security information nor communications with the President. The President has no grounds to assert executive privilege.

The suit follows months of political ping-pong. In February, the House voted to bring contempt charges against Miers and Bolten, but U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to refer those citations to a grand jury. In their latest move, House Democrats are hoping to compel White House cooperation with a civil suit.

In a statement issued Monday, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) indicated that his panel, acting as plaintiff in the case, has asked the court to find the following:

(1) Ms. Miers is not "immune" from the obligation to appear before the committee in response to a duly authorized, issued and served committee subpoena;



(2) Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten must produce privilege logs identifying all documents withheld on grounds of executive privilege;

(3) Executive privilege does not cover documents not involving the president or undertaken directly in preparation for advising the president or whose contents are widely-known, previously released or previously the subject of extensive, authorized testimony, and that Ms. Miers’s and Mr. Bolten’s claims of executive privilege are, in any event, overcome by the committee’s compelling need for the subpoenaed testimony and documents.

(4) that Ms. Miers is required to appear before the committee to respond to questions put to her pertinent to the investigation and to invoke executive privilege only if and when appropriate;

(5) that Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten are required to provide, as required by the subpoenas, a detailed privilege log, identifying by author, recipient, date and subject matter those documents responsive to the subpoena that have been withheld on executive privilege grounds;

(6) that Ms. Miers and Mr. Bolten are required to produce all non-privileged documents responsive to the subpoenas.

Timing now will be vital, with Democrats hoping to force the issue before the arrival of November’s elections.