Thanks to Drudge, we get all these headlines and links and even a little "blast from the righteous past!"
See the video when candidate Obama ruefully disdained the Bush Administration's reliance on privilege.
Well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander...
Grassley says:"I write now to inform you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4, 2011, documents," Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote in a letter to Issa made public just before the committee meeting was scheduled to begin Wednesday."We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee's concerns and to accommodate the committee's legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious," Cole's letter continued. "Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the Committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues."
“How can the president assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the president exert executive privilege over documents he’s supposedly never seen? Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? The contempt citation is an important procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances,” he said.Mr. Issa, Mr Grassley, Please proceed with the contempt votes. The sooner the better.
5 comments:
This is nothing more than a skirmish where Holder seeks to narrow the scope of the House subpoena.
Cheny v. US http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-475.ZO.html will control here, where the Court observed in United States v. Poindexter, 727 F. Supp. 1501 (1989) "The court decided to narrow, on its own, the scope of the subpoenas to allow the Executive “to consider whether to invoke executive privilege with respect to … a smaller number of documents following the narrowing of the subpoenas.”
So Holder will argue that he should not have to assert the priviledge before the Court narrows the scope of the subpoena. This will take a loooong time.
The Obama campaign has decided to take the hit now to innoculate public opinion, so that Fast & Furious is neutralized as the campaign heats up.
Maybe it's all spin, but Foxnews and the Republicans are selling this pretty hard for an internal dispute like that.
Justice Kennedy mused in Cheny v US that "Were the Vice President not a party in the case, the argument that the Court of Appeals should have entertained an action in mandamus, notwithstanding the District Court’s denial of the motion for certification, might present different considerations." This is dicta, not precident.
Certainly, there is an open question about how far down the pyramid executive privilege goes. This will not come to the fore first, because claiming privilege will put the onus on the party seeking the documents to establish the demand is not overly broad. After that, the question of executive privilege gets litigated. That won't happen before November - not enough time to litigate the overbreadth issue.
As much as I dislike this pos I do have to give him "style " points on knowing what he can get away with in this political environment.
He takes a poll and sees America is softer on illegal immigrants etc and BAM!!. Saves his first exec privi for Eric and BAM!!!
He has learned well from the old Chicago Jedi Masters....The dark powers of the force are strong with him...
not enough time to litigate the overbreadth issue
I could be wrong - Issa is not wasting any time here. Finally one on our team with balls.
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