Posted on 07/03/2008 9:25:23 PM PDT by smithone
The standoff between the House and the Bush administration over the congressional testimony of top White House aides continued on Thursday when House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) threatened to hold Karl Rove in contempt if he follows through on his refusal to respond to a committee subpoena.
Conyers and Administrative Law subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) were responding to a July 1 letter they received from Rove’s attorney, Robert D. Luskin, in which Luskin said his client would be unable to appear before Sanchez’s subcommittee. The panel is investigating the politicization within the Justice Department and had subpoenaed Rove to testify before the subcommittee next Thursday.
In his letter, Luskin said Rove would not appear “on the grounds that Executive Privilege confers upon him immunity from process in response to a subpoena directed to this subject.”
In a letter released Thursday, Conyers and Sanchez rejected that claim, and warned that they could move to hold Rove in contempt of Congress if he fails to respond to the subpoena.
“We want to make clear that the subcommittee will convene as scheduled and expects Mr. Rove to appear, and that a refusal to appear in violation of the subpoena could subject Mr. Rove to contempt proceedings, including statutory contempt under federal law and proceedings under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives," Conyers and Sanchez wrote.
If both sides follow through on their threats, Rove would become the third member of Bush’s innermost circle to be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify after being subpoenaed. The House in February voted to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the same panel.
Conyers and Sanchez also again rejected Rove’s offer to appear for an off-the-record interview.
Thanks!
I don't have too many pics with Karl.
Here's one I do have:
Conyers should be threatened with elocution lessons and the English language.
Contempt of Congress? That’s a bigger honor than the Congressional Medal isn’t it?
I hope Conyers is given a national platform to open his mouth. He’s a hard-core Stalinist and an extraordinary moonbat.
Everything that issues from his tiny brain will be an opportunity for derision, laughter and wonderment over what kind of idiots live in the district that elects a thing called Conyers.
It should also be an ocassion to drag out all the thievery, chicanery and treason that Conyers has engaged in.
Is there anyone in America that soes not have contempt for Congress?
It's a political puppet show by Democrats for the Democrats. Imagine... if Dems could actually do this to Karl Rove, the mind just boggles over what will happen should Obama step into the Oval Office, along with his pals. My, oh, my!
Karl knows this; Conyers knows this.
>>Unfortunately this is setting a banana-republic style precedent wherein all officials of the previous administration can expect to be persecuted and prosecuted by their political opponents.
You’ve hit the key issue right there. This sort of thing is extraordinarily dangerous, as it leads to politicians being unwilling to leave office without force . . .
Dollars to doughnuts he hasn't got a hair.
You right. None on head, none on other.
Conyers is NOT my Congesscritter by choice...he was forced upon me by Detroit.
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