House Dems Compare Bush To Nixon In Seeking Contempt Ruling

Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee compared President Bush to the late President Richard Nixon in a legal motion filed today in federal court as part of their civil contempt lawsuit against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers for failing to comply with panel subpoenas. The subpoenas were issued as part of the committee's probe into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

"Not since the days of Watergate have the Congress and the federal courts been confronted
with such an expansive view of executive privilege as the one asserted by the current presidential
administration and the individual Defendants in this case,' said House General Counsel Irv Nathan and other House lawyers in their motion.

"During the course of the Investigation, Harriet Miers, a private citizen and former Counsel to the
President, asserted that a President’s mere request that she not even appear to testify before, and
produce documents to, the Committee is enough to bestow absolute immunity upon her from a
validly issued congressional subpoena. Similarly, Joshua Bolten contended that, as White House
Chief of Staff, he is “absolutely immune” from congressional process and thus is not required to
comply in any manner with a Committee subpoena for documents. These extraordinary and wholly unsupportable claims flout established law and suggest a return to the long-since  discredited executive mantra of 'when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.'”

That quote is takenfrom a 1977 New York Times interview with Nixon, three years after he was forced from office over the Watergate scandal.

The Judiciary Committee is seeking "partial summary judgement" against Miers and Bolten. Miers, at the direction of the White House, declined to appear before the panel to testify on what she knew about the U.S. attorney dismissals. Both Bolten and Miers, at the presdient's direction, have refused to turn over a "privilege log" describing documents that they are withholding from the committee.

Relying on a claim of executive privilege, Bush has declined to allow House and Senate Democrats to question Miers and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, or allow Bolten to turn over any internal White House documents related to the prosecutor purge. The House approved a criminal contempt motion against Bolten and Miers, but Attorney General Michael Mukasey, citing earlier Justice Dept. legal opinions, has declined to allow federal prosecutors to bring that case to a grand jury.

The House Judiciary Committee responded by filing a civil contempt suit against Bolten and Miers, and House lawyers sought expedited consideration of the case in order to make sure the case is decided before Bush leaves office next year. The committee wants Miers to at least appear before House members to assert an executive privilege claim, and it wants a privilege log from both Bolten and Miers
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