The Attorney General & Executive Privilege

On Wednesday, July 23, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing during which the committee questioned our current Attorney General Micheal Mukasey. As the media was too busy covering America's Next Top President, there were a few questions and answers that I would like my few readers to know about.

First, Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida (view the clip here - click red flash button on the right) brought up a meeting that FBI agents had with Vice President Dick Cheney during which the Vice President was asked about his involvement in the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame (her deliberate public outing was a felony). Congress has requested the transcripts from the Justice Department but have been denied access because Attorney General Mukasey said that the FBI interviews of Vice President Cheney were "internal White House deliberations" and thus exempt from congressional oversight. Congressman Wexler asked for Attorney General Mukasey's definition of "internal White House deliberations" but Mukasey instead gave his definition of what qualifies for executive privilege. He said executive privilege covers "deliberations between the president and those immediately around him and the gathering of information by him for the purpose of making decisions". Congressman Wexler then went on to ask, "Whether or not the VP participated in a scheme to out a CIA agent, would that be covered by executive privilege?"

Attorney General Micheal Mukasey's answer was, "In the abstract, no."

The point? The Attorney General knows there are limits to the claims of executive privilege, as he should. This tells me that when he defends bogus claims of executive privilege, like he did to Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, that he's lying.

Congresswoman Linda Sanchez of California addressed Karl Rove's refusal to appear before Congress for the second time using a claim of executive privilege (view the clip here). She reminded the Attorney General that even if a witness called before Congress wants to use executive privilege in order to refuse to answer a question, that person still needs to show up. She also reminded the Attorney General that the subpeona which Karl Rove blew off was issued to compel his testimony about former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman's case, which took place in Alabama and involved conversations between Karl Rove and political operatives and Justice Department officials... conversations that, as far was we know, did not involve the President. Attorney General Mukasey's answer was that the subject of whether or not an adviser to the president needs to show up in response to a Constitutional subpeona is currently before a district judge and it is not appropriate for him to comment.

Which is stupid on two levels. First of all, as explained by Jonathon Turley, a constitutional lawyer, "there is no justification for the failure to appear" before Congress when subpoenaed. Second, the Attorney General out ranks a district judge. Considering that the law is clear, the Attorney General has no justifiable reason not to comment.

The reason I'm writing about this today is that there is a hearing tomorrow in the House Judiciary Committee titled " Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations" and I believe these answers given by our shameless Attorney General are going to be brought up.

The House Judiciary Committee is a group of Congressman we should all be watching very closely because they hold the key to holding the Bush administration accountable for their lawlessness. Earlier this month, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced "a "privileged resolution"... calling on the House to look at whether President Bush should be removed from office for lying to Congress and the American public when he sought congressional approval back in 2002 for taking military action to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein."

In an about face on the subject, Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently hinted that impeachment hearings are no longer "off the table" and hearings could be held in the House Judiciary Committee. If we have any chance of getting this President out of office, or achieving my more realistic goal of having him stripped of his power of the presidential pardon, the House Judiciary Committee is the group of people that must take the first step. This hearing on executive privilege tomorrow may getter us closer to those impeachment hearings. I hope I'm not the only person who will be watching tomorrow, Friday July 25th at 10am EST.