By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
July 17, 2007
WASHINGTON - Former White House aide Harriet Miers will continue
to refuse to appear before a House committee, her lawyer said
Tuesday despite Democrats' threats to hold her in contempt.
"Ms. Miers will not appear before the committee or otherwise
produce documents or provide testimony," lawyer George
T. Manning said in a letter to the committee.
The House Judiciary Committee had given Miers, President Bush's
former legal counsel who defied a subpoena to appear before
the committee, until Tuesday to change her mind about testifying.
Lawmakers have been investigating whether the White House was
involved in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors.
"Her failure to comply with our subpoena is a serious
affront to this committee and our constitutional system of
checks and balances," House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers,
D-Mich., said. "We are carefully planning our next steps."
Any contempt proceedings would first be considered by the
committee and later by the full House. If a majority of the
House approves a contempt order, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
would refer the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District
of Columbia, Jeff Taylor, a Bush appointee.
While Democrats say Miers made her own decision not to appear,
Manning said in the letter that Bush told her to defy the committee
because of executive privilege. Democrats say her immunity
ended when she left her White House job.
The White House is also claiming executive privilege on e-mails
on the firings sent by White House officials on Republican
National Committee-sponsored accounts. Those documents also
have been subpoenaed with a Tuesday return date, but Conyers
agreed to give the RNC until July 31 to turn over the documents
or explain why not.
A Judiciary subcommittee will meet on Thursday to consider
the White House's executive privilege claim.
Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have denied wrongdoing
in the dismissal of the federal prosecutors, maintaining they
are political appointees who can be fired by the president
for almost any reason.
Conyers on Tuesday also asked for Justice Department documents
involving its prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman,
Wisconsin state procurement official Georgia Thompson and Cyril
Wecht, a Pennsylvania coroner.
Democrats have alleged that all three prosecutions were politically
motivated. The Justice Department has insisted there was no
political involvement.
On another front, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday
agreed to give the White House more time to respond to its
subpoena for documents relating to Bush's controversial eavesdropping
program that operated warrant-free for five years.
The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal
disputes within the administration over the legality of the
program, which Bush put under court review earlier this year.
"However, it has become clear that we will not be able
to come close to completing our review process by the July
18 return date," Fred Fielding, the White House counsel,
wrote in a letter to the committee.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he would
work with the administration.
___
On the Net:
House Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.house.gov
Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov
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