Leahy, Specter Ask Rove Lawyer
To Voluntarily Provide “Lost” E-Mails Related To Panel's Probe

WASHINGTON (Friday, May 25) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) sent the following letter to Karl Rove’s attorney seeking access to e-mails related to the panel’s ongoing investigation into the firings of U.S. Attorneys and politicization within the Department of Justice. 

Rove, a senior political advisor to President Bush,  and the White House political operation -- which Rove heads – have been linked to the project that resulted in the unprecedented firings of several well-performing federal prosecutors, according to information gathered by the Committee through documents, interviews and testimony.  Several of the dismissed prosecutors have testified under oath and said in public that they were unaware of performance problems and believe political influence was a factor in their firings.   

White House officials have claimed many of these Rove e-mails were “lost,” although some of Rove’s e-mails were reportedly shared with the Department of Justice as part of its probe into the Valerie Plame case.  The Committee issued a subpoena to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier this month compelling the Department of Justice to provide all Rove e-mails it had in its possession related to the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the fired prosecutors.  The Department responded that it retained only the e-mails related to the Plame investigation and returned the electronic media containing the rest of Rove’s e-mails to Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin.   

Below is the text of the letter.  A PDF is also available.

 

May 24, 2007

Robert D. Luskin
Patton Boggs LLP
2550 M Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037

Dear Mr. Luskin:

The White House has confirmed that an unknown number of e-mails, including those of your client, Karl Rove, from both White House accounts and those sent or received using political Republican National Committee accounts, have not been archived. You stated publicly that Mr. Rove's emails were turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer by officials in the Administration that led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.  

The Department's response to the Committee, however, suggests that these emails were not in fact turned over permanently to Mr. Fitzgerald. According to the Department, Mr. Fitzgerald only obtained access to the "electronic media" containing these emails to do a search for documents related to the Plame investigation and then he returned this electronic media to you in a sealed condition.

Do you retain possession of this electronic media and will you provide the Committee with Mr. Rove's emails related to our investigation voluntarily?

Sincerely,

 

PATRICK LEAHY                                          ARLEN SPECTER
Chairman                                                          Ranking Member

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