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Home Front: Politix
U.S. Senate Authorizes Subpoenas
2007-03-23
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday authorized issuing subpoenas to top White House officials in its investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys. Democrats rejected U.S. President George Bush's offer to talk to his aides, but not under oath and without a transcript and approved the subpoenas after an hour of debate, The Washington Post reported. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., criticized the White House offer as "nothing, nothing, nothing."

"The only thing they would accept is if the Senate did exactly what they told them to, which would be closed-door, limited number of people, limited agenda, no oath and no transcript, so nobody knows exactly what happened," Leahy said.

The committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., urged the Democrats to "make a counterproposal to the White House" instead of authorizing subpoenas, the Post reported. "I counsel my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to work hard to find a way to avoid an impasse here," he said. "We don't need a constitutional confrontation." Bush has said he'll go to court to fight subpoenas of his aides.
Posted by:Fred

#2  The headline says Senate, but the article says Senate Judiciary Committee. Surely the entire Senate has to vote on this for it to happen?
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-03-23 17:47  

#1  
"Most importantly, compelling compliance with a congressional subpoena in this context would be difficult. The civil contempt mechanism normally available to Congress, see 28 U.S.C. § 1365, specifically exempts subpoenas to the executive branch. The criminal contempt mechanism, see 2 U.S.C. § 192, which punishes as a misdemeanor a refusal to testify or produce documents to Congress, requires a referral to the Justice Department, which is not likely to pursue compliance in the likely event that the President asserts executive privilege in response to the request for certain documents or testimony. Thus, the only legal way to enforce this subpoena would be to hold a witness in contempt using its “inherent contempt authority,” but this would require a contempt trial on the floor of the Senate. Not many of us relished our role as jurors during the impeachment trial and are not anxious to reprise that role."

- Senator Patrick Leahy from Sept 23, 1999
(via Mark Levin and Patterico)
Posted by: eLarson   2007-03-23 06:26  

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