March 10, 2008 House committee sues over executive privilege in attorney firings

(NECN) - The House Judiciary Committee has sued former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten in an effort to make them testify and provide documents about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

The suit challenges Miers' claims of immunity, and says she and Bolten must identify all the documents they are withholding from Congressional committees investigating what Democrats say are politically motivated firings of nine attorneys.

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said, "We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress."

Conyers, D-Mich., said he is confident the federal courts will agree that the Bush administration's position is at odds with constitutional principles.

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit says: -The record reveals numerous questionable or outright false statements to Congress and the public by other members of the administration, including purported reasons for seeking the forced resignations and the scope of White House involvement.

-Executive privilege does not cover documents whose contents are widely known, previously released or that were the subject of extensive, previously authorized testimony.

The lawsuit also says Miers' conduct is inconsistent with representations that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel made to Congress in 1971 when OLC was being

Rehnquist told Congress that a witness intending to invoke executive privilege may not simply ignore a congressional subpoena and fail to appear.

Conyers said the administration "simply will not negotiate towards a compromise resolution, so we must proceed."

Michael Steel, spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, told the AP that the lawsuit pandered "to the left-wing fever swamps of loony liberal activists."