Congress Warming Up Contempt Talk
Posted on | July 23, 2007
The House Judiciary Committee is seriously threatening contempt charges, it seems, against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and the current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. Not the inherent contempt charge, by which Congress could directly arrest and imprison the two, but the usual slow process which the Bush Administration will sandbag in the court system.
“This investigation, including the reluctant but necessary decision to move forward with contempt, has been a very deliberative process, taking care at each step to respect the Executive Branch’s legitimate prerogatives,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a statement. “I’ve allowed the White House and Ms. Miers every opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, either voluntarily or under subpoena. It is still my hope that they will reconsider this hard-line position, and cooperate with our investigation so that we can get to the bottom of this matter.”
Through an attorney, Miers had had earlier stated that she does not fear contempt charges. She refused to comply with a subpoena and appear before the House Committee on July 12 as part of the investigation into the firing of 9 US Attorneys. Bolten also has failed to turn over documents sought by House Democrats. The Bush chief of staff was ordered to comply with the subpoena by 10 AM this morning…
In Monday afternoon’s press conference, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow dismissed the contempt charges as “a fishing expedition that’s woefully short on fish.”
He repeated the White House’s offer for off-the-record interviews for officials like Miers on the US Attorneys firings, and suggested that the Justice Department was unlikely to proceed with contempt charges, “if precedent is any guide.”
However, he insisted that the White House would not make that judgment for the Justice Department.
Don’t expect any actual testimony to result.
