Committee Report Hammers Bush For 'legally Unprecedented' Moves

A bipartisan report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee accuses President Bush of “legally unprecedented and…inappropriate” use of executive privilege, after Bush withheld an interview of Vice President Cheney from the committee earlier this year.

After the committee subpoenaed documents in relation to the leak of the identity of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, Bush directed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to withhold Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s interview of Cheney, citing executive privilege.

The report was circulated Tuesday by committee chairman Rep. Henry A. Waxman and Rep. Tom Davis, the top Republican on the panel.

Waxman also released a separate report Tuesday, criticizing the president’s assertion of executive privilege in the committee’s investigation into recent climate change and Clean Air Act decisions.

Both reports will be considered by the full committee next week.