Former White House Aides May Still Be Required To Appear Before Congress
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archi...09/262797.aspx
Former White House Aides My Still Be Required To Appear Before Congress
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Democrats involved with the two Hill investigations into the firing of the federal prosecutors are insisting that former White House aides Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers show up as requested this week at hearings -- regardless of today's claim of executive privilege. Their arguments can be summarized like this:
- The subpoena requires two things: 1) to show up and 2) to testify. Invoking privilege does not excuse a subpoenaed witness from appearing. The House Judiciary is telling Miers to show up no matter what, and they are proceeding as if she will. She is due before House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Taylor was summoned to appear Wednesday before the Senate committee.
- Privilege would be properly invoked when the witness was asked specific questions during testimony.
- The White House is motivated by a desire avoid a picture of Taylor and Miers before the committee, being sworn in and invoking privilege.
- The documents requested do not fit into a claim of executive privilege, which pertain to the president's decision-making process. "However, numerous witnesses before both House and Senate Committees have testified that the President did not decide which U.S. Attorneys should be fired," the Senate committee asserts.
Taylor Will Appear before Senate Judiciary Committee
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_ro...lor/index.html
(Beltman713: This could get very interesting.)
Taylor Will Appear before Senate Judiciary Committee
We just got off the phone with Tracy Schmaler, a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic majority. Schmaler told us it is her understanding that -- despite President Bush's invocation of executive privilege in regards to the testimony of former White House staffers Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers about the ongoing U.S. Attorneys scandal -- Taylor will still appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Schmaler says she learned that from Taylor's lawyer, W. Neil Eggleston, earlier Monday afternoon. When called for confirmation by Salon, Eggleston was unavailable. He has not yet returned a message left seeking comment.
As for Miers, the question of whether she will appear as scheduled before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday is apparently still up in the air. A spokesperson for the committee told Salon that the committee had not yet heard anything definitive about whether Miers would appear, and her lawyer was unavailable for comment.