Above The Law
Posted on | July 20, 2007
Grasping for ever more power, the Bush Administration’s claims of privelege have exceeded all sane limits.
A senior Bush Administration official unveiled a new strategy in Friday’s Washington Post — anonymously — to combat Democrats in Congress who are clamoring to file contempt charges against officials who refuse to talk about the firings of nine US prosecutors.
In sum, this strategy amounts to, “once we say no, we can’t be charged.”
According to the Post, “Administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.”
“A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case,” a senior official told the Post, which granted the official anonymity because ‘he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.’ “And a U.S. attorney wouldn’t be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen.”
George Mason University professor of public policy Mark J. Rozell called the administration’s stance “astonishing” in the article.
“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” said Richard Nixon. George W. Bush’s White House extends that ludicrous claim to everyone in the building.
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