Posted on 09/05/2001 1:23:51 PM PDT by jern
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is prepared to invoke executive privilege if Congress demands to see documents about prosecutors' decisions in three Clinton-era cases, administration officials said Wednesday.
The claim, if made, would be Bush's first known use of executive privilege, a doctrine recognized by the courts to ensure presidents can get candid advice in private without fear of it becoming public.
White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales recommended that Bush make the privilege claim if a Republican-led House committee subpoenas the memos or seeks to question Attorney General John Ashcroft about them, the officials told The Associated Press.
The House Government Reform Committee prepared subpoenas demanding the disputed documents and planned to serve Ashcroft on Thursday, setting up a possible legal showdown.
The officials said the administration has researched at least four other instances in which executive privilege was cited involving similar documents.
Executive privilege is best known for the unsuccessful attempts by former Presidents Nixon and Clinton to keep evidence secret in impeachment investigations.
Rep. Dan Burton (news - bio - voting record), R-Ind., the chairman of the House committee, said the Bush administration's stance threatened Congress' ability to oversee the executive branch.
``While I have a great deal of respect for the attorney general, he has announced a new policy that broadens executive privilege,'' Burton said. ``If this unprecedented policy is permitted to stand, Congress will not be able to exercise meaningful oversight of the executive branch.''
Burton's committee has for months been seeking Justice Department (news - web sites) memos about prosecutors' decisions in cases involving Democratic fund raising, a former Clinton White House official and a former federal drug enforcement agent.
A senior administration official said while the decisions were made during Clinton's presidency, Bush had accepted Gonzales' recommendation and was prepared to invoke the privilege and create a clear policy that prosecutors' discussions should be off-limits from congressional scrutiny.
White House lawyers and the president concluded ``the fair administration of justice requires full and complete deliberations and that most often can best be accomplished when prosecutors think through their options in private,'' the official said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
The claim would be the latest in a string of efforts by the new administration to restrain the flow of information to Congress about private deliberations.
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) has rebuffed requests by the General Accounting Office (news - web sites) and a Democratic congressman to divulge information about people he met with and how he helped develop Bush's energy policy.
And a Senate committee chaired by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news - bio - voting record) was initially turned down when it demanded several documents detailing the administration's decision to review regulations enacted by Clinton. Eventually, the administration allowed the committee to review the memos, but an aide to Lieberman said officials sent a clear message they would assert their right to withhold documents.
Ashcroft indicated last week the administration intended to reverse the practice of sharing prosecutors' deliberative documents with congressional committees.
Several such memos were shared with Congress during both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most recently in the 1990s such documents were turned over to the Whitewater, fund-raising, pardons and impeachment investigations.
But the concept of extending executive privilege to Justice Department decisions isn't new. During the Reagan years, executive privilege was cited as the reason the department did not tell Congress about some memos in a high-profile environmental case.
And then-Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web sites) advised Clinton in 1999 that he could invoke the privilege to keep from disclosing documents detailing department views on 16 pardon cases.
Legal experts are split on how such a claim might fare in a court challenge.
``Prosecution is a core executive function and from that starting point, a claim of executive privilege is quite a good one,'' said John Barrett, a former Iran-Contra prosecutor who now teaches law at St. John's University.
But Noah Feldman, a constitutional law professor at New York University, said courts would have to balance the president's right to confidential advice against Congress' right to oversight. Feldman said the fact that several prosecutorial decision-making memos have been disclosed to Congress in the past without apparent harm to the presidency could influence the debate.
Clinton's former chief of staff, John Podesta, said most new administrations test the limits of congressional oversight then conclude it is better to reach a negotiated settlement.
``Ultimately the public loses faith in fair administration of justice from over-claims of executive privilege, especially in matters that don't have to do with direct advice to the president,'' Podesta said. ``It appears to me that every administration has to learn that the hard way.''
Actually I wasn't on very much this summer -- my youngest and I took a vacation for two weeks, closed on a house two weeks after we got back and have been trying to unpack and get everything situated since then.
Could say I had burnout after the campaign and the tax cut campaign we ran! Fortunately Karl Rove seems to have the inside track on advising over some of the others! And he is a rock-ribbed conservative!
BTW, the clintons did leak all the time, but I heard Burton with my own ears on some of the cable shows and I didn't like what I heard! I believe in balance of power and think some of the Chairman have let their Chairmanships go to their head! They make a big splash about commiittee hearings and nothing comes out of them! Maybe they should hold a few less hearings on TV to quit their grandstanding. Inhofe said it best when describing how ms. clinton waits to enter until the cameras are on! Believe written transcripts would better serve all of us constituents -- shorter hearings, more to the point, and no grandstanding like I have witnessed recently!
Thank the good Lord in Heaven there aren't two of these maggots who're identical.
Trust me.
You belong in an institute, Cato; or wait...is that Cato Institute.
-never mind.
Oh yeah, Xlintoon would have never entertained a Practicing Gay for an office to protect a disease to make sure it spreads.
Is that the difference you wanted??
How about the reccession we are in??
How about 495,000 H1Bs in the middle of that reccession??
You think that is a wise move too?
I stand by my comments.
I had to scroll back to 143 to see what I wrote so I could respond.
I like that. I take that as a compliment. LOL!
You have a nice life,
CATO
As well you should.
Was intended to evoke that precise reaction with what I know of your sense of humor.
Laughing's good for the soul; & these days that goes doubly-so.
"You have a nice life..."
You too, Cato.
If you believe any information the government has on you is
ever deleted, on purpose, then I am afraid you are in for a lot
of dissapointments in life. :)
======================
Well said. So right becomes wrong and vice versa, I understand now.
Just how would a congress gather evidence for an impeachment inquiry, without this power? Hmmmnnn.
Did you watch the news today? Apparently not.
Big Guy don't need no steeking news. He knows what jr. gonna do, and he ain't gonna let them there mexican "migrants" stay here!!! So there!!!!
What? There's a thread running about him working on doing that? nevermind.
Artificial Intelligence puts you WAY up there. Bet that's what you've got, AI.
I'm lacking the REAL Thing. And I lied about the 84!
Got dyslexia, too. 48.
None that I know of. He has even gone forward with the land grabs.
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