Mukasey Refuses Probe of Bush Aides

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers committed no crime.

As promised, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court.

"The House shall do so promptly," she said in a statement.

Mukasey said Bolten and Miers were right in ignoring subpoenas to provide Congress with White House documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

"The department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers," Mukasey wrote Pelosi.

Pelosi shot back that the aides can expect a lawsuit.

"The American people demand that we uphold the law," Pelosi said. "As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that."

The suit had a political purpose too. Democrats have urged that the filing occur swiftly so that a judge might rule before the November elections, when all 435 House seats and a third of the Senate are up for grabs. Criticism of Bush's use of executive power is a key tenet of the Democrats' platform, from the presidential race on down.

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The House voted two weeks ago to cite Bolten and Miers for contempt of Congress and seek a grand jury investigation. Most Republicans boycotted the vote.

Pelosi requested the grand jury investigation on Thursday and gave Mukasey a week to reply. She said the House would file a civil suit seeking enforcement of the contempt citations if federal prosecutors declined to seek misdemeanor charges against Bolten and Miers. The plaintiffs would be the entire Judiciary Committee, who would be represented by the House's lawyers, according to aides to Pelosi and committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

Mukasey took only a day to get back to her. But he had earlier joined his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, in telling lawmakers they would refuse to refer any contempt citations to prosecutors because Bolten and Miers were acting at Bush's instruction.

A civil suit would drag out a slow-motion crawl to a constitutional struggle between a Democratic-run Congress and a Republican White House that has been simmering for more than a year.

Democrats say Bush's instructions to Miers and Bolten to ignore the House Judiciary Committee's subpoenas was an abuse of power and an effort to block an effort to find out whether the White House directed the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 for political reasons.

Republicans call the whole affair a political game and walked out of the House vote on the contempt citations in protest.

The 223-32 House vote on a resolution approving the contempt citations Feb. 14 was the first of its type in 25 years. The White House pointed out that it was the first time that such action had been taken against top White House officials who had been instructed by the president to remain silent to preserve executive privilege.

In his letter, received by the House early Friday evening, Mukasey pointed out that not only was Miers directed not to testify, she also was immune from congressional subpoenas and was right to not show up to the hearing to which she had been summoned.

"The contempt of Congress statute was not intended to apply and could not constitutionally be applied to an executive branch official who asserts the president's claim of executive privilege," Mukasey wrote, quoting Justice policy.

"Accordingly," Mukasey concluded, "the department has determined that the noncompliance by Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers with the Judiciary Committee subpoenas did not constitute a crime."

Though they were not surprised, Democrats reacted to Mukasey's letter with outrage.

"Today's decision to shelve the contempt process, in violation of a federal statute, shows that the White House will go to any lengths to keep its role in the U.S. attorney firings hidden," said Conyers. "In the face of such extraordinary actions, we have no choice but to proceed with a lawsuit to enforce the committee's subpoenas."

Comments

[lungfish]

well, Dubya said that the US Constitution "is just a goddamned piece of paper" and apparently he has managed to surround himself with people who believe it.

[johnpherson]

The Constitution, ha!

A god damn piece of paper

Spit ball stuff says Bush.

[johnpherson]

American Justice League.

A dumb comic indeed.

Bush's God Damn Rag.

[jankvkleve]

Impeachment would be ideal, but short of that it is important for Congress to vote on this issue. Then, with luck, people will remember how their Congressperson voted when it comes time in November to decide whether or not to keep them in office. Republicans who want to keep their jobs will do well to give this one a lot of thought.

[johnpherson]

Little flag pin?
Means nothing at all.
In trash bin.

[WLA]

Tairrist!

[johnpherson]

MO RON

[johnpherson]

Land of the free home of brave?

[dax49]

is no one interested in the rule of law in this country? all of this off the point BS and crap about lets just forget it make my sick. if any one of you ignores a subpoena, you would be in jail. are our country's laws just for any one not in the bush administration. the republicans who walked out were cowardly sheep with no concern that they betrayed their oath to uphold the constitution

[CBS]

Did you all note that the other day Dubya said that the republicans would hold the White House. Errr...I think that is a signal that he may not be leaving and guess what...a major terror attack could happen that would suspend the elections and keep his butt planted in the WH whilst the generals sort it out. Welcome to the US as Pakistan. Or for that matter any third world country. So, it has come to this.

[lungfish]

I share your concerns in this regard. These guys have no limits on how far they will go to get power or what they will do to keep it.
That airplane sat at Barksdale with the unauthorized nukes on it for over 24hours and nobody can say whether there were six bombs or five on it. This is the only time that such a thing has happened in 40years and nobody knows or can document which bombs were loaded onto it or why. The military agrees it was an accident but since when do nukes move anywhere without signouts and accountability processes? Yet all of those failed.
Very spooky, indeed. For precedent look at the USS Liberty, that went right to LBJ himself and included a number of US Generals and others in the Pentagon.
And that isn't the only example.... Gulf of Tonkin, and others including possibly 911 - and the Bali bombings stink to high heaven of a false flag op...
I really hope we are both wrong. I really do. i want to eat my words and be humiliated off this site rather than be right. I want to think that Dubya and co are leaving office on time and that he will rot out the remainder of his days dodging extradition on his ranch in Paraguay along with the rest of the NAZIs from WWII - the Boys from Brazil crowd.
But, to plagiarize a phrase, I have a bad feeling about this.

[AmericaIsATerroist]

Bush wouldn't survive a week if he pulled that stunt. I wouldn't put it past him, but it would be, BY FAR, the greatest miscalculation (or misunderestimation) of his sordid Administration. Nothing is being, or has been done, no justice has been meted out for anything. In situations like this, it just take one catalyzing event to make people snap. A massive terrorist attack followed by what amounts to a
coup d'état would just about do it I think. After all, is the Decider suppose to be keeping us all safe from the Nookuler Trrists?

[drdolby]

You have hit the nail on the head! While everyone else is "championing" their clone to take the Whitehouse, the chimp and Darth Chaney have dreamed up some extremely effective Executive Orders already on record.

This bozo can have his creatons, write anything they want him to do for them and presto, magic, it becomes the law of the land, who the f*** needs congress, or a legislative branch for that matter.

I would really like to know exactly what that sneaky chimp (and his evil mentor Cheney) are up to with this legislation: NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20 Homeland Security Presidential Directive.

These documents are not a myth and can be viewed directly on the whitehouse.gov site by following this link:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

The documents essentially allow chimpy (at his discretion, say a bombing attack on Iran), to declare a National Emergency, (kind of like Musharraf just pulled off in Pakistan and of course Bush supported), which then gives him the authority to declare martial law, suspend elections and even take over the Corporate Sector.

Call me paranoid, but just what exactly is the intent of such legislation, if not an outright Power Grab that will instill him as the dictator of our once sovereign country?

You can read more about it from this article:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55824

Be afraid, very afraid!

[Collielady]

Yessir! One false flag attack coming up. You want that with, or without, planes flying into buildings?

[foreffectivegovernment]

CBS, you said "Did you all note that the other day Dubya said that the republicans would hold the White House?"

George W. Bush doesn't have to do anything. The Democrats are doing it to themselves.

They let an unknown State Senator from Illinois, who has been in the U.S. Senate for about two years, run for President and destroy a Democratic Senator because she cast the same vote 21 other Democratic Senators did because of doctored intelligence. The Democratic Doves in the same Senate parade him forward as the all knowing messiah because he made an anti-war speech at an Anti-War Rally and used that speech to convince voters that he somehow had Hope and ESP.

That same unknown now has a cult-like following that is threating to "riot in the streets" or "vote for McCain" if their candidate is not the nominee. These same supporters are threating and using Mafia-like tactics to strongarm the Black superdelegates into supporting this candidate.

This candidate is allowing the Republican machine to force the other candidate out of the race to boost his ego and he will become "the First Black President of the United States."

I see two posibilities for George W. Bush's statement to come true.

1. Barack Obama is the nominee of the Democratic Party with the help of the Republican and Independent Strategic Vote" where they help nominate both the Democratic and Republican candidates and then vote Republican in the General Election which gives John McCain the Whitehouse.

2. The Democratic Super-delegates do their job and nominate Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic candidate. The Barack Obama supporters riot in the streets, George W. Bush declares Martial Law, with the aid of Mukasey, uses what is left of the National Guard to quell the riots, jails all of the protesters as Terriorists and retains the Whitehouse himself.

3. Read your history. Check out the Veterans from WW! who wanted what was right and marched on Washington. Check out the Kent State affair.

Either way Democrats, if we continue the way we are now going and do DO NOT let the election process proceed, in all fairness, we do not deserve the office. Don't let the Republicans destroy our candidate again with our help, allow the process to work like it was designed even if your candidate doesn't win. These guys are the real enemy, not fellow Democrats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Her_Now

[foreffectivegovernment]

From the U.S. Constitution to prove my point. "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;"

He can do it, period.

[jerryfromcalifornia]

I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THERE IS A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT AND MAJORITY. I BET THAT THE RULES WILL CHANGE THEN.

[AmericaIsATerroist]

You KNOW it's going to happen. Dumbya's last act is going to be to roll the scope back Executive Power to Clinton era levels. The GOP would be committing political suicide if he didn't.

[Agent86]

How?

[kardwell]

WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH VOTES TO IMPEACH.

Blame Pelosi and crew as much as we like, this is a FACT. While I deeply despise the inaction, the apathy of the Democratic Congress for the past several years, I despise the Republican mafia equally, if not more so.
Either they have the votes or they don't -- and in a majority of cases, and particularly when it comes to impeachment, they simply do not.
Is anyone even remotely interested in evolving beyond finger pointing, to move forward to a consensus that we are not even remotely satisfied with our representation across the board?? Is anyone interested in acknowledging and our system, to it's very core, is corrupt and criminal?
Nancy Pelosi? She isn't exactly Wonder Woman nor God, she is a cog in the wheel. Failed us or not, she doesn't wield the lasso of truth or a magic wand that will rectify the problems endemic. Wake up, folks. Better yet, GROW UP!
While you were all guzzling your lattes and inhaling your Mac-food in front of your idiot boxes dialing 1-800 to charge crap made in China to your Citibank card, our country was being heisted. HEISTED. ROBBED. STOLEN.
Now you want to play the blame game and charge Pelosi and Reed with the crime.
How immature....

[UncleJimbo]

There are enough votes to Impeach...But possibly not Convict! I have said all along if Impeachment were started and the facts laid before the American people in the Senate the shit would hit the fan! Let's begin the process and see where it leads us!

[WLA]

I would also like to see what this would shake loose. But I think dumbya would just give Congress the finger.

[newshawk14]

I actually agree with most of your points, but am also reminded of an old WWII British marching song
that went: "Adolph Hitler only had one ball, Goering had two but they were very small, Himmler had
something similar, and Goebels had no balls at all." I find that substituting the names of our
congressional leadership, with Pelosi bringing up the rear, sums up my feelings about their
leadership, precisely. I suspect if they were subjected to this little ditty, by a regular chorus on the capital steps, their spines might stiffen a bit.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Actually, they do have enough votes to impeach. It only needs 40 to impeach and 40 to demand an end to the war asap as in yesterday. They are using the numbers as an excuse not to do either. The dems know they will be in power soon, and are waiting for the right person to come in, do thier dirty work for them. Make no mistake, a dem wont be thier puppet. The SS Bush is going to get a nasty surprise, a great big, white iceberg called justice. Just becuase it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean its not out of the question. Best we bide our time, and let them hang themselves further on thier own rope. Folks, they are handing us their asses on a silver platter, all we need to do is sit back and serve.

[ErnestineBass]

Perhaps this is off topic and unrelated, but it seems the world's oceans and seas are being overwhelmed by a sudden explosion in the jellyfish population.

Coincidence...or Mother Nature displaying a sense of irony?

[MajorKong]

Why don't we just crown Bush king and get it over with?

[Jrtrollspaceman]

pelosi needs to be investigated for stupidity

[swokm]

I agree this is completely unconstitutional. Not to mention against the whole idea of America; we will NOT tolerate "kings" or "queens" -- whichever Bush fancies himself.

IMPEACHMENT is the tool provided for congress to demonstrate that the executive has exceeded the law and its role in the THREE CO-EQUAL BRANCHES of government. It is not an option; it MUST be used. And does anyone here actually still think the executive has not lied and wiretapped its way across that line long ago?

Impeachment HAS to begin immediately for the good of this country. Or we are just as effectively killing it off with our inaction.

[ErnestineBass]

BOLLOCKS!!!

We've blithely lived under the boot of "King George Shortpants" for seven and one half years now.

[eugenegerard]

Begin IMPEACHMENT proceedings against Mukasey post haste.