Judiciary Committee voting on subpoenas of White House aides

March 21, 2007

Washington, D.C. - The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday will cross the line drawn in the sand by President Bush when it votes to authorize the use of subpoenas to force top White House aides to testify about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the same issue Thursday.

Those votes will not mean that subpoenas will be issued, only that they could be used to compel testimony from top Bush political adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, among others, as to why the U.S. attorneys were pushed out.

Tuesday, Bush said the White House had put forward a "reasonable proposal" when it offered to let Congressional committees interview Rove, Miers and their two top deputies.

Those interviews would be conducted without an oath and without a transcript, according to a letter from current White House counsel Fred Fielding to the heads of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.

The president said those committees should take the White House offer, rather than forcing "an avoidable confrontation" by issuing subpoenas for some of his key aides.

"We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants," the president said. "The initial response by Democrats, unfortunately, shows that some are more interested in scoring political points than in understanding the facts. It would be regrettable if they choose to go down the road of issuing subpoenas.

"I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials."

Bush said he will not allow Rove and the others to testify under oath because it would damage their ability to give the president "candid advice."

But, he said, "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his key staff will testify before the relevant congressional committees to explain how the decision was made and for what reasons."

The president's offer also includes communications between White House staffers and the Justice Department on the firings, although not communications between various White House officials on the matter.

Key Democrats have already rejected the offer.

"It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Leahy also complained about the 3,000 documents the Justice Department handed over to the committees late Monday, saying redactions in the documents make them unworkable.

"Instead of freely and fully providing relevant documents to the investigating committees, they have only selectively sent documents, after erasing large portions that they do not want to see the light of day," he said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday that the offer from the White House "is incomplete."

"We would be able to interview the four people we requested, Karl Rove, Counsel Miers and their two assistants, but only in private, not under oath and with no transcript," he said. "And the last part of this is the most troubling of all. When there's no transcript what do we do when people's recollections are different? Furthermore, when there is no transcript, and what, say, Karl Rove says contradicts what somebody else has said, what do we do?"

Lawmakers from both parties are questioning whether the firings of several U.S. attorneys were politically motivated.

Justice Department officials say the dismissals of at least seven U.S. attorneys were based on performance or managerial problems, but acknowledged that one fired attorney was pushed out to make way for a protege of Rove.

The controversy over the firings has already cost the job of Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, and prompted several from both sides of the aisle to call for Gonzales' resignation. But on Tuesday, Bush said Gonzales has his full support.

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