Aug. 1, 2008 – 2:06 p.m.
The House Judiciary Committee sent word to the White House on Friday that it expects to receive by Aug. 8 at least some documents about the 2006 firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
The request was prompted by a federal judge’s ruling Thursday that White House Chief of Staff
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled that the White House had to turn over documents not covered by an executive privilege claim, and provide a list of withheld documents that are privileged. He also ruled that former White House counsel Harriet Miers could not avoid physically appearing before the committee, or turning over non-privileged documents.
“Given that the documents have already been collected, identified, and reviewed, this should be ample time,”
The White House has not yet indicated whether it intends to appeal the decision but suggested Thursday it did not intend to hand over any documents.
“The court has merely directed the executive branch to produce a log as part of this litigation to assist the court in deciding which, if any, documents are subject to a claim of executive privilege,” said Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman.
Conyers also wrote separately to lawyers representing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and former political adviser Karl Rove seeking to arrange their testimony in September, though they set no deadline for their appearance before the committee.
Bates held that Miers could not avoid physically appearing before the committee by asserting an absolute executive privilege and must assert such a privilege in person in response to particular questions.
Conyers wrote Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, that if Rove agreed to appear before the committee in September, it could forestall a vote by the full House holding Rove in contempt for failing to testify as subpoenaed to do so. The Judiciary Committee approved a contempt resolution earlier this week prior to Bates announced his decision.