CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 20, 2012 – 10:58 p.m.
Legislative, Executive Branches Clash
By John Gramlich, CQ Staff
Republican leaders said the House will vote next week to hold Attorney General
Speaker
The committee vote came after President Obama invoked executive privilege for the first time in his administration to withhold some documents and communications sought by Oversight Chairman
Boehner and Cantor called the assertion of executive privilege an “extraordinary step” and gave Holder a blunt ultimatum.
“While we had hoped it would not come to this, unless the attorney general re-evaluates his choice and supplies the promised documents, the House will vote to hold him in contempt next week,” they said in a statement. “If, however, Attorney General Holder produces these documents prior to the scheduled vote, we will give the Oversight Committee an opportunity to review [them] in hopes of resolving this issue.”
Democrats charged Republicans with pursuing the issue to hurt Obama in an election year. They urged Boehner not to bring the contempt resolution to the floor.
“What we just witnessed was an extreme, virtually unprecedented action based on election year politics rather than fact,” Maryland Rep.
The White House cast the committee vote as a politically motivated diversion. “With millions of Americans still struggling to pay the bills, Republicans announced at the beginning of this year that one of their top priorities was to investigate the administration and damage the president politically,” White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement emailed to reporters Wednesday.
Holder rejected House Republican claims that the Justice Department had been unresponsive and accused Issa of turning aside efforts “to reach a reasonable accommodation.”
“This divisive action does not help us fix the problems that led to this operation or previous ones, and it does nothing to make any of our law enforcement agents safer,” Holder said in a statement. “It’s an election year tactic intended to distract attention.”
Deferring to Executive
Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole announced the administration’s executive privilege assertion in a letter to the Oversight Committee on Wednesday, saying release of the internal executive branch documents would impair its ability to deliberate “independently and effectively.” As did House leaders, Cole left the door open to finding a compromise to resolve the standoff.
“Compelled disclosure [of the documents],” Cole wrote to Issa, “would be inconsistent with the separation of powers established in the Constitution and would potentially create an imbalance in the relationship between these two co-equal branches of the government.”
Legislative, Executive Branches Clash
Cummings said the White House should be shown deference on claims of executive privilege and that Republicans have not made enough of an effort to negotiate a resolution with the Justice Department.
“Congress has a responsibility to conduct vigorous oversight of the executive branch,” he said. “But the Constitution also requires us to recognize the legitimate interests of the executive branch, and to avoid unnecessary conflict by seeking reasonable accommodations when possible.”
But
Grassley said the issue of executive privilege never came up when he, Issa and other lawmakers met with Holder June 19 in an unsuccessful attempt to avert Wednesday’s vote.
“If it were a serious claim, the administration would have and should have raised it last night, if not much earlier,” Grassley said in a statement late Wednesday.
“It appears that the president is relying on the deliberative process privilege,” Sensenbrenner said. But citing two circuit court rulings, he added, “The privilege, however, cannot be used to protect documents in the face of wrongdoing.”
Boehner, through a spokesman, also raised questions about the White House’s assertion of executive privilege.
“The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement Wednesday. “The administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?”
Steel added that executive privilege claims have “been routinely withdrawn or thrown out by the courts when they do not actually involve White House documents.”
The events marked a significant escalation in the political debate over the gun-tracking operation, in which the Justice Department allowed guns to be brought into Mexico in an effort to trace them to Mexican drug cartels.
Weighing the Politics
House leaders are vowing to move ahead with the contempt vote even though Boehner and Cantor have stressed repeatedly that they intend to focus their legislative efforts on boosting the economy and creating jobs.
Legislative, Executive Branches Clash
Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, said Boehner can manage a contempt vote without undermining his focus on the economy.
“It’s naive to believe that you can go for five months and talk about just one subject, even if it’s a giant one like the economy,” Sabato said.
The National Rifle Association, which has called for Holder’s resignation, said it would score members’ votes if a floor vote is held.
House leaders are confident they have the votes to approve a contempt resolution on the floor. “This is an open and shut case. The administration is stonewalling,” said a senior House Republican aide.
The last time any executive branch official was held in contempt of Congress was February 2008, when the Democratic-led House held two former aides to President George W. Bush, counsel Harriet E. Miers and chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten, in contempt over the alleged politicization of U.S. attorneys’ offices. The measure passed 223-32, with House Republicans boycotting the vote in protest.
Richard E. Cohen and Steven T. Dennis contributed to this story.