Sen Leahy: Cheney Told GOP-Led Congress It Was 'Not Allowed To Issue Subpoenas'

Think Progress:

Today in a press briefing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) revealed that the White House had missed its 2:30 PM deadline to turn over documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding legal justifications for the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program. The Committee had already pushed back the original July 18 deadline twice after the White House requested more time.

Leahy said that the administration's stonewalling amounted to "contempt of the valid order of the Congress," and pointed out that these subpoenas were passed by broad bipartisan votes. In fact, the Senate Judiciary Committee in the conservative-led 109th Congress, chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) also attempted to ask questions about the program's legal justifications. But Vice President Cheney personally barred him from issuing subpoenas:

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

09:31 PM on 08/21/2007

Cheney, Constitutional Scholar? Or,
Cheney, lying waste of sperm.

HHHHHHHMMMMMMMMM, definitely the latter.

[TovSquirrel]

07:55 PM on 08/21/2007

executive privilege, it existence and whether or not it has limitations, could make it to the supreme court where the current regime is fairly sure of a favorable vote--not certain, mind you

would that be enough to demonstrate to the public that the system is broken

probably not

vote for the republic not a party

[Dansden]

01:22 PM on 08/21/2007

Again, it is NOT the fault of Dick Cheney or Lil Bush, but the collusive, complicit and conniving irrespnsibility of the
RECALCITRANT PARTY that revealed to ALL AMERICANS AND THE WORLD such disdain for the most glorious document of freedom in human history:
The CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
To vote REPUBLICAN is to enable and enRICH
an assault upon the freedoms we all hold dear and forfeit the RULE OF LAW FOR THE ELITIST REPUBLICANS WHO FANCY THEMSELVES AND THEIR CRONIES AND LACKEYS ABOVE THE LAW!

[esquire07]

01:16 PM on 08/21/2007

Cheney knows he can do whatever the hell he wants so long as Impeachement-off-the-table Pelosi continues to protect him and the President.

The no good coward degenerate Pelosi must go now !!! It is time for the democrats to find a leader not afraid of the Bush criminals.

Susan Davis (D)CA - Is also a coward degenerate, she funded Bush's war because she recieves campaign donations from the Arms industry. Then she lied to the people of her district about why she gave Bush a blank check.

Democratic cowards.

[ranger5]

12:49 PM on 08/21/2007

Cheney is a rogue vice-president. He refuses to acknowledge the Consitution, the separation of powers enshrined in that document, or his limited role as VP. And no one in Congress is even close to being prepared to take in Bush, let alone Cheney. The next imperial executice will only be emboldened by this complete lack of accoutability.

[Grannysue]

12:46 PM on 08/21/2007

Well gee I guess if Cheney told those loyal butt lickers it's not legal for them to bother him with silly old subpoenas and they did, so now Leahey says well that's it, no more mister nice guy! Um, here's a suggestion FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION, I realize the Republicans only give it lip service, I heard Bush on some sound bite yesterday saying "we will enforce the Constitution", who's that's what I wanna know? Maybe Karl and Dick and Gonzo got together and wrote a new improved Constitution while they were planning that Iraq invasion.
Basically it has three parts: One: anyone that doesn't agree with us, will be sent to Gitmo.
Two: We must instill fear in every American because that's how we win elections and keep those good little GOPERS on a short leash!
Three: We are right, all Democrats are criminals and whatever we say goes!
End of document.
Now were all living in Bush's world, isn't it wonderful in here, look, there's another oil company investment check floating bye, made out to Dick, and another and another!
Oh, my look at Iraq, see all the houses look just like American houses, oh, well maybe American houses in the Gulf, and the economy in Iraq, well it's just as good as the American economy, everyone is working, smiling, singing, grass is green, kids playing, oh don't mind that explosion, it's just some of those idiot terrorist we created.
Must be nice to be high all the time and live in OZ. Can't wait for them to pull back the curtain.

[MikeStrong]

12:39 PM on 08/21/2007

I'm sure Cheney also told them not to go to the potty without getting permission from his office, which is located in an undisclosed building in the undeclared "bunker" branch of the government. And don't even ask the Dick himself. Permissions for congress are being handled by low-level (con-)temps in the Dick's office.

[hopeless277]

12:11 PM on 08/21/2007

Neither are you, Leahy. You doddering old fool. You can't win against Republicans. No one can. So just put on your brown shirt and your armband and march to tune of everlasting war with the rest of us. Trust me, you'll get used to it eventually. Sieg heil Bush the Decider.

[TJTelecaster]

12:09 PM on 08/21/2007

All this perversion and mis-information in regard to our very system of governance comes from those usurper zealots of The Federalist Society..

They are behind this plot to over throw Our system of government, and establish a Unitary Tyrannical Chief Executive Dictatorship in America...

Such as Samuel A. Alito that criminal openly advocated, and was rewarded with a seat on the Supreme Court, which is now in reality the Federalist Society Court as these vile treasonous pernicious pusillanimous cabal of lawyers, are the majority on that once esteemed branch of our ever less secure and egalitarian Republic..!

[fact finder]

11:33 AM on 08/21/2007

The whole damn bunch needs to be arrested , tried for treason, and summarily punished with extreme prejudice as allowed by law.

[ghostsofamerica]

11:27 AM on 08/21/2007

Jackson Williams

"Executive Privilege" Alert: White House Planning Major Effort to Confuse Americans Yet Again

July 28, 2007






http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-williams/executive-privilege-ale_b_58227.html




"...Also, keep in mind that while Cheney's energy task force got to keep its documents secret, executive privilege was not asserted in that matter. (Executive privilege does not -- at present -- extend to the vice president because the Constitution vests the executive power solely in the president. As long as the president is healthy, the veep has no constitutionally assigned executive function. Maybe that's why Cheney asserts that he's his own branch of government?)

Oh, and Snow's reference to the privilege hailing all the way back to George Washington? Spin. In 1796, the House of Representatives wanted to see documents related to a treaty, and Washington reasoned that since the Constitution gives treaty approval exclusively to the Senate, the House could just buzz off. Only the Senate got the documents, so he was the first to *sort of* claim a privilege, but it never was tested in the courts, and his reasoning was -- let's face it -- based on something actually in the Constitution. Not exactly a similar analogy on Tony's part, is it?

The concept of executive privilege -- and the body of law about it -- is perhaps the thinnest and murkiest thing in all of our government, contrary to Tony Snow's spin job and what will surely be a new effort by conservative bloggers to make it otherwise.

They should not get away with it."

[ghostsofamerica]

11:26 AM on 08/21/2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_subpoenas

Administration seeks delay on subpoenas

1 hour, 24 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged it has documents that "may be responsive" to an investigation into a secret eavesdropping program, although it indicated it would not turn over the papers without a fight.



Lawyers speaking on behalf of both President Bush and Cheney asked the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday for more time to respond to subpoenas involving a wiretapping program that Democrats in Congress have harshly questioned..."





There are about twenty articles, including five on this blog alone that already says CHENEY HAS NO EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE. READ IT< and pass it around to your democratic senators and congresspeople right now. Get the word out.

[gappytoofcondi]

11:18 AM on 08/21/2007

Contact your congressman to let him know you want him to support HR333 sponsored by Kucinich to throw this POS out. WTF?? No rules apply to him. Is he above the law?

Cheney is a stone cold traitor.

[LoneRangerDude]

11:12 AM on 08/21/2007

We've had enough "threats". It's time to take the bastards to court.

[Janus]

10:23 AM on 08/21/2007

Why all the excitement about Chickenhawk-Puppeteer Cheney, and not his Puppet squatting in the Oafel Office, laying down the Cheney-Bush Whitehouse position on matters in dispute. It's just one more display of who is really running the Country.
As to the subpoena duces tecum, don't expect a response. The military-industrial-reichwing media complex through its stooges won't permit it. Moreover, the loyal evangelical Dupes who, waving flags and chanting support for the Puppet and his Puppeteer, will praise this monarchical government-by-secrecy as the red-blooded American way of fighting for Good over Evil, in the name of Jesus of course.