Leahy Presses Mukasey For Analysis
Of Executive Privilege Request
WASHINGTON (Wednesday, July 16,
2008) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
today pressed Attorney General Michael Mukasey on his recent
request that the President to claim executive privilege, thereby
exempting Mukasey himself from complying with a subpoena to
provide documents to a House Committee investigating the leak of
undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
In a letter sent to President Bush
dated July 15, Mukasey requested that the President assert
executive privilege, shielding Mukasey and the Justice
Department from fulfilling the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee’s June 16 subpoena for documents detailing the
interviews of Vice President Cheney and members of his staff
related to the leak of Plame’s identity.
“Apparently you wrote a letter to
the President both requesting that he assert executive privilege
and offering him the legal analysis you believe supports such an
assertion,” wrote Leahy. “It appears you are wearing two hats,
one as the person to whom the subpoena was directed, and now
facing a criminal contempt citation for noncompliance, and a
second as the Attorney General purporting to offer objective
legal advice.”
Leahy’s questions to Mukasey
included whether the Attorney General, himself the identified
recipient of the House Committee’s subpoena, recused himself in
offering the legal analysis and opinion to the President.
Leahy continued: “This executive
privilege claim, and your justification for it, appears to turn
the privilege on its head. The purpose of executive privilege is
to encourage candid advice to the President, not to cover up
what the Vice President and White House staff say to
investigating authorities when that information is requested in
the course of congressional oversight.”
The full text of Leahy’s letter
follows. A PDF is available
here.
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July 16, 2008
The Honorable Michael B. Mukasey
Attorney General of the United
States
United States Department of
Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Mukasey:
I am writing regarding your
request to the President that he claim executive privilege so
that you would not have to comply with a subpoena from the House
Government Reform and Oversight Committee for documents related
to the illegal leak of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame’s
identity. The subpoenaed documents apparently include materials
from the investigation related to the leak, including reports
from the FBI’s interview with Vice President Dick Cheney, whose
former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been charged,
convicted and had his sentence commuted by President Bush for
lying to a grand jury and the FBI during the course of that
investigation.
Apparently you wrote a letter to
the President both requesting that he assert executive privilege
and offering him the legal analysis you believe supports such an
assertion. It appears you are wearing two hats, one as the
person to whom the subpoena was directed, and now facing a
criminal contempt citation for noncompliance, and a second as
the Attorney General purporting to offer objective legal
advice.
I have a few questions:
Would you please provide this
Committee with the legal analysis that justifies this claim of
executive privilege?
Did you consider recusing yourself
from offering a legal opinion to the President on the validity
of an executive privilege claim excusing you from complying with
a congressional subpoena? If not, why not?
This executive privilege claim,
and your justification for it, appears to turn the privilege on
its head. The purpose of executive privilege is to encourage
candid advice to the President, not to cover up what the Vice
President and White House staff say to investigating authorities
when that information is requested in the course of
congressional oversight.
Sincerely,
PATRICK
LEAHY
Chairman
cc: Hon. Arlen Specter
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