Pelosi Calls For Grand Jury Investigation Of Bolten, Miers

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Thursday demanding that the Justice Department seek a grand-jury probe of whether White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriett Miers were in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to subpoenas issues as part of the U.S. attorney firing probe.

Mukasey and his predecessor, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, have stated that they will not allow the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeffrey A. Taylor, who would be responsible from bringing a criminal case against Bolten and Miers, to take action on the issue. The Justice Dept. has taken the position that criminal charges cannot be brought against an executive-branch official who refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena once the president invokes executive privilege, which President Bush did in the case of Bolten and Miers.

Pelosi, however, argues in her letter that Taylor is compelled under existing law to bring charges against Bolten and Miers, regardless of the Bush’s executive-privilege claim and DOJ’s official position on the issue.

“There is no authority by which persons may wholly ignore a subpoena and fail to appear as directed because a President unilaterally instructs them to do so,” Pelosi told Mukasey in Thursday’s letter.

“Even if a subpoenaed witness intends to assert a privilege in response to questions, the witness is not at liberty to disregard the subpoena and fail to appear at the required time and place. Surely, your Department would not tolerate that type of action if the witness were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury,” she wrote…”I strongly urge you to reconsider your position and to ensure that our nation is operating under the rule of law and not at presidential whim.”

In addition to approving the criminal contempt citations against Bolten and Miers, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) was authorized to initiate a civil-contempt action against the two Bush aides.

UPDATE: A spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) characterized the letter as "a complete waste of time," arguing that Democrats "should be working with Republicans, and responsible members of the Democratic Caucus, to protect our country by passing the bipartisan FISA modernization bill.

"The terrorist threat to our country is not going away, and this sort of pandering to the left-wing fever swamps of loony liberal activists does nothing to make America safer," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.

To read the letter, click to the next page.
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