June 19, 2010 7:22 AM
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House Panel Subpoenas Gonzales Documents
(CBS/AP)
Democrats subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday for more documents, escalating their fight with the Bush administration over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
The subpoena, issued a week before Gonzales is to testify under oath before Congress about the dismissals, seeks hundreds of documents either withheld or heavily blacked out by his department. The subpoena sets a Monday deadline for Gonzales to produce the documents.
The chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee personally delivered the subpoena to the Justice Department, reports CBS News' Stephanie Lambidakis. The subpoena comes after weeks of wrangling over unredacted documents the Committee wants turned over. Investigators are especially interested in information about vulnerable U.S. attorneys who held on to their jobs.
"We have been patient in allowing the department to work through its concerns regarding the sensitive nature of some of these materials," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote Gonzales in a letter accompanying the subpoena. "Unfortunately, the department has not indicated any meaningful willingness to find a way to meet our legitimate needs."
He characterized the subpoena as a last resort after weeks of negotiations with Justice over documents and e-mails the committee wants in its pursuit of whether any of the firings were improper.
Responding, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse stopped short of saying the department would fight the subpoena. But he said legal concerns about violating privacy rights of people mentioned in the documents have kept the Justice Department from releasing them.
"Much of the information that the Congress seeks pertains to individuals other than the U.S. attorneys who resigned," Roehrkasse said. "Because there are individuals' privacy interests implicated by publicly releasing this information, it is unfortunate that Congress would choose this option."
He added: "In light of these concerns, we will continue to work closely with congressional staff and we still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress."
Roehrkasse also said that many of the documents that lawmakers now seek "have already been available to them for review" but declined to say how or where.
Conyers' counterpart, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., also asked Gonzales in a letter for documents on the firings that have been retained by the Justice Department. Such letters are sometimes preludes to a subpoena, which Leahy's committee is expected to authorize this week.
Leahy's committee also asked Gonzales for documents on a prosecution in Wisconsin that was overturned by a federal appeals court for lack of evidence. The defendant, state worker Georgia Thompson, had been accused of bid-rigging by favoring a company with ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Leahy and five other Democratic senators said they were "concerned whether or not politics may have played a role" in the case against Thompson.
Together, the developments made clear that Democrats would make life for Gonzales and the Bush administration no easier in the week leading up to his long-awaited testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 17.
The subpoena, issued a week before Gonzales is to testify under oath before Congress about the dismissals, seeks hundreds of documents either withheld or heavily blacked out by his department. The subpoena sets a Monday deadline for Gonzales to produce the documents.
The chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee personally delivered the subpoena to the Justice Department, reports CBS News' Stephanie Lambidakis. The subpoena comes after weeks of wrangling over unredacted documents the Committee wants turned over. Investigators are especially interested in information about vulnerable U.S. attorneys who held on to their jobs.
"We have been patient in allowing the department to work through its concerns regarding the sensitive nature of some of these materials," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote Gonzales in a letter accompanying the subpoena. "Unfortunately, the department has not indicated any meaningful willingness to find a way to meet our legitimate needs."
He characterized the subpoena as a last resort after weeks of negotiations with Justice over documents and e-mails the committee wants in its pursuit of whether any of the firings were improper.
Responding, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse stopped short of saying the department would fight the subpoena. But he said legal concerns about violating privacy rights of people mentioned in the documents have kept the Justice Department from releasing them.
"Much of the information that the Congress seeks pertains to individuals other than the U.S. attorneys who resigned," Roehrkasse said. "Because there are individuals' privacy interests implicated by publicly releasing this information, it is unfortunate that Congress would choose this option."
He added: "In light of these concerns, we will continue to work closely with congressional staff and we still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress."
Roehrkasse also said that many of the documents that lawmakers now seek "have already been available to them for review" but declined to say how or where.
Conyers' counterpart, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., also asked Gonzales in a letter for documents on the firings that have been retained by the Justice Department. Such letters are sometimes preludes to a subpoena, which Leahy's committee is expected to authorize this week.
Leahy's committee also asked Gonzales for documents on a prosecution in Wisconsin that was overturned by a federal appeals court for lack of evidence. The defendant, state worker Georgia Thompson, had been accused of bid-rigging by favoring a company with ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Leahy and five other Democratic senators said they were "concerned whether or not politics may have played a role" in the case against Thompson.
Together, the developments made clear that Democrats would make life for Gonzales and the Bush administration no easier in the week leading up to his long-awaited testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 17.
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