ACLU Pushes For Criminal Contempt Charges Against Bolten, Miers

The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing a Justice Department prosecutor to bring criminal contempt charges against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for failing to respond to subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee.

The House last week approved resolutions calling for both criminal and civil contempt cases to be initiated against Bolten and Miers. President Bush, citing executive privilege, refused to allow Bolten and Miers to respond to the Judiciary Committee subpoenas, which were issued last year as part of the panel's probe into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey and other Justice Department officials have stated that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey A. Taylor, cannot bring criminal contempt charges against an administration official to a grand jury in a case involving executive privilege.

As a backup, the House also authorized Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to move ahead with a civil action against Bolten and Miers. The House general counsel's office will represent Congress in that case.

But the ACLU, building up a 1983 case involving an EPA official, urged Taylor to move ahead with the criminal case against Bolten and Miers.

"In 1983, your office, under the leadership of U.S. Attorney Stanley Harris, brought a contempt citation against then-Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Anne Gorsuch Buford to a grand jury, as required under the law," Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office, said in a letter to Taylor on Tuesday. "The U.S. House of Representatives cited Ms. Buford for contempt after she invoked executive privilege in refusing to provide documents relating to a congressional investigation of the EPA. Mr. Harris initially delayed convening a grand jury to address Ms. Buford's contempt citation, pending the resolution of litigation initiated by the Department of Justice contesting the legality of the House's contempt action. This suit was eventually dismissed and a negotiated settlement was reached through which the withheld documents were made available to Congress. Nevertheless, Mr. Harris ultimately performed his duty under the law and Constitution, and convened a grand jury to determine whether the entirety of the facts surrounding Ms. Buford's contempt citation warranted an indictment."

 
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