Congress Pushes Judge To Secure Bush Records

WASHINGTON — The new Congress on Thursday asked a federal judge to force the Bush White House to keep documents on the controversial firings of nine federal prosecutors instead of turning them over to the National Archives.

Congressional Democrats have been fighting in court to get the documents from the administration for months, and they want to make sure they don't disappear into the National Archives. They asked U.S. District Judge John Bates to order the administration to leave the documents at the White House in the custody of President-elect Barack Obama's aides in case the information is needed.

Justice Department lawyers argued that the White House is required to turn the material over to the National Archives.

The 1978 Presidential Records Act requires all presidential and vice presidential records to be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration immediately upon the end of a president's last term of office and gives the archivist responsibility to preserve and control access to presidential records.

The National Archives has already agreed to segregate the subpoenaed material from the rest of Bush's documents in case it is needed by the courts or the Obama administration, lawyers said.

"If they want the documents, they can request them from NARA," lawyer Carl Nichols said.

But Bates said he had no doubt "there will be some delay if the materials are sent" to the Archives. The judge suggested that he may order the administration to make copies of the documents so they can send the originals to the Archives and make the copies available to the incoming administration.

He said he would make a final ruling on Friday.

Democrats want the documents because they hope to prove that the firings of the nine federal prosecutors were politically motivated.

Bates last year ordered Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten to turn over documents about the controversial firings. His order was blocked by a federal appeals court, which said the subpoenas for the documents and the testimony from Bush aides issued by the 110th House of Representatives would expire when the congressional terms ended on Jan. 3.

The 111th House of Representatives reissued the subpoenas on Wednesday.

Comments

[senorlou]

Its amazing how many crimes the Bush Admin. have committed. If they get away with them all, it'll be a tragedy for all of us.

[booboo111]

Good photo of the three of them. The d-head, the a-hole and the toady.

[dbdzen]

If Bush loses this case, he'll pardon Rove, Meiers, Bolten and Gonzo.

[dadw5boys]

Well what is so suprizing ?

They sealed the JFK Records for another 25 years and no one was marching on Washington for the Truth.

Americans have no sense of right and wrong anymore, they only care about what is good for them.

They have been listen to the Propaganda so long they can no longer think and act to protect the Constitution or their own Bill of Right.

[booboo111]

Well said, dadw5boys

[HolmesMusic]

copies? ummmm ... ever heard of pdfs? better put a team on 24/7 watch for those papers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw9bxJb--3c

[mommadona]

OK, Let's Review:

The POTUS is the EMPLOYEE of the American Taxpayers.
All his correspondence is funded by the American Taxpayers -every scrap of paper/every pen used/every email sent.

Hence, when relieved of his duty as POTUS, ALL CORRESPONDENCE STAYS IN THE HANDS OF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.

It's JUST BUSINESS.

What's so hard to understand about that?

He wants 'personal' papers, let him do it on his OWN dime and time.

ALL PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS SHOULD BE UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.
Period.

Enough of this false royalty-entitlement bit.
Should have nipped it in the bud when Washington refused a perpetual presidency.

[quiviran]

With this crowd, we can always hope they are making copies before they shred them!

[Grannysue]

Anyone who thinks there are any records left that haven't been shredded needs to stop smokin that wacky tabaccie, Bush and his thugs have been running the shredders for months, you can only use it to stuff pillows or for bird cage paper at this point.

[zest]

Good luck with that judge.

[MajorKong]

That's not NASCAR you're hearing. That's the sound of shredders running at full throttle over at the White House.

[LHoney]

I think Blair House is full of confetti!

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

HOW WHEN HES HIS BEST FRIEND?

[castlerider]

So what are the Vegas odds that Bush's crew will find a way to sneal 'em away?

I'll guess about 70%...

[AbyssinianLion]

Well this is a bit too late. The shreaders started on 11/05/2008 and have been constanly working since.

[Felicty]

But you can bet that they DON'T save anything.

They have already proven to themselves that they are above the law.

[Marie62866]

You all know that the shredder has been going 24/7!

[lunchlady]

Good! Let's hope it happens. But if the judge is part of the Bush crony pack then it won't.