RNC Now Seeks Shelter of Executive Privilege

[Demeter]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081407A.shtml


RNC Now Seeks Shelter of Executive Privilege
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Tuesday 14 August 2007

The Republican National Committee said it will not abide by a subpoena and turn over documents to a Congressional committee investigating the firings of at least eight US attorneys last year because the RNC is waiting to see if the White House will assert executive privilege over RNC documents at the center of the controversy, according to an outside law firm retained by the RNC.

The White House has asserted executive privilege to block senior administration officials from testifying before Congress about their involvement in the decision to fire the federal prosecutors. Moreover, the White House has cited executive privilege in declining to turn over specific documents to Congress that may shed further light on the circumstances behind the attorney firings. The US attorneys believe they were fired for partisan political reasons. In some instances, the US attorneys said they were pressured by Republican lawmakers and RNC operatives to file criminal charges against Democrats at the center of public corruption probes prior to last year's midterm election as well as individual cases of voter fraud, which the attorneys said was based on weak evidence, in order to cast a dark cloud over Democratic incumbents and swing election results toward Republican challengers.

Earlier this year, internal Justice Department documents related to behind-the-scenes discussions involving the US attorney firings revealed some Bush administration officials have primarily used email accounts maintained by the RNC to conduct official White House business in what appears to be a violation of the Presidential Records Act. The RNC is believed to have thousands of pages of documents from White House officials in its possession, dating back to 2005, that could answer lingering questions about the role the administration played in the decision to fire the US attorneys.

The latest salvo between the RNC and Congress over the documents under subpoena sets the stage for a legal showdown between the House and RNC Chairman Robert Duncan, who Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers threatened to hold in contempt if documents and internal RNC emails relating to the Congressional probe are not turned over to his committee. Neither Conyers nor a spokesman for the congressman returned calls for comment on Monday. Presumably, any further legal action would take place when Congress returns from its summer vacation next month.

In a letter sent on Friday to Conyers, Robert Kelner, an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, DC, said the White House counsel's office instructed the RNC not to "produce Category Two documents at this time."

[Xipe Totec]

1. I'm suing the RNC - my ass fell off laughing

They owe me one ass.

:rofl:

[bluerum]

2. WTF! The entire repuglic party seeks excretive privilege? This is beyond absurd.

[burythehatchet]

3. but they have nothing to hide

[MrMickeysMom]

8. Oh, nonsense... let's spy on them, lock them up and send them to Egypt to find out!

[MadMaddie]

4. The Executive Privilege will need to be modified....

It should be rewritten to only include certain situations.....it should not cover the RNC, or Carl Rove or anyone else......Situations the President deems Executive Privilege should be able to be reviewed by a non-partison person.

This Administration has ruined any standing practice....everything has to be reexamined.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. What a howler!!

Please, assert executive privilege. By all means, assert executive privilege for the Republican National Committee. The RNC is by no stretch of the imagination part of the executive branch or any other branch of the federal government. Even if there were such a thing as executive privilege, it couldn't possibly extend that far.

Which genius White House constitutional scholar thought of this one? It must have been Gonzo, because Cheney and Addington aren't that outrageous.

[TomInTib]

7. My guess is Fred Fielding.

He is one rat-bastard.

[liberalmuse]

6. Reagan shat...

and the big, stinking turd known as today's Republican Party was birthed. It's high time this country flushed and plunged that fucker into oblivion.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

9. Indictments approaching

This is making news now because some of these RNC asswipes are sweating through their Brooks Brothers and clenching thier sphincters tight. Somebody is going to go to jail, because somebody at the RNC has already destroyed documents. I expect Waxman to blow a gasket upoin his return.

I can already hear the judge laughing.

[Homer12]

10. The RNC is buying time, they all are....

...they know they can't win constitutionaly. They are buying time to destroy evidence.

[peacetalksforall]

11. Executive Privilege - RNC and Rove -

First, you claim you have it
Then, you get the President to declare it.
Then, you calculate how long you can stall it.
Then, you get the corporations and reverends to spin it.
Then, you excoriate the Dems for not going along with it.
(We hope they don't go along with it.)

[Fearless]

12. Let them claim it... and everything else too

We need a clear case of abuse of executive privilege. I know it already is, but the general public doesn't. Perhaps things need to get worse before they get better. Oh hell, I'm going to get sh*t on for that one.