**Bush invokes executive privilege to keep Justice Department documents secret**

AP ^ | 12-13-01 | John Solomon

[Oldeconomybuyer]

06:57 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has invoked executive privilege for the first time to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from decades-old Boston murders to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe, The Associated Press has learned.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Why?...

[ChaseR]

Why?"

Top of the List = CHINAGATE

[Oldeconomybuyer]

(12-13) 07:01 PST (AP) -- "It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee," Bush wrote in the memo obtained by AP. "I have decided to assert executive privilege with respect to the documents."

Bush wrote that the "disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions."

The decision immediately affects a subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee for documents related to 1960s murders in Boston. More importantly, it sets a new policy in the works for months in which the administration will resist lawmakers' requests to view prosecutorial decision-making documents that have been routinely turned over to Congress in years past.

[ChaseR]

2ND = RON BROWN'S HEAD SHOT

[horsewhispersc]

He's hiding sumptin methinks! I wanna know!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

BUMP!

Justice is prevailing across the land!! Here it comes!

Run Bill Run!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Never show your hand until the right time. That was the difference with Clinton: everything was a photo op; there was no National Security. He had no decorum or protocol (sp?). He made the liberal media and liberal press to run the country.

God bless GW!

[Fred Mertz]

The decision immediately affects a subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee for documents related to 1960s murders in Boston.

They're covering each others' tracks.

[Wil H]

....you wish !

The Bushes and the clintons have mutually assured destruction of each other in their past dealings, you won't see any justice here...

[Oldeconomybuyer]

07:07 PST (AP) -- Executive privilege is a doctrine recognized by the courts that ensures presidents can get candid advice in private without fear of its becoming public.

The privilege, however, is best known for the unsuccessful attempts by former Presidents Nixon and Clinton to keep evidence secret during impeachment investigations.

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales recommended Bush invoke the privilege earlier this fall.

Aware the White House was considering such a new policy, members of Congress have raised concerns that it will hinder lawmakers from giving proper oversight to federal prosecutions, noting scandals in the past would never have been exposed if Congress had been kept from sensitive documents.

"If this unprecedented policy is permitted to stand, Congress will not be able to exercise meaningful oversight of the executive branch," Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said recently.

Burton is chairman of the House panel that has been trying to obtain documents from various federal cases in which lawmakers want to examine the conduct and decisions of prosecutors and FBI agents.

[ladtx]

He's hiding sumptin methinks! I wanna know!

He's playing it close to the vest. Otherwise the perps will know exactly what's going on. Seems good investigative procedure to me.

[JHENN22499]

I can only imagine "why". This should make an interesting thread today!!!

[RedBloodedAmerican]

BUSH WITHDRAWING FROM ABM TREATY NOW! LIVE!

[FreeTally]

Bush wrote that the "disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions."

IOW, "We don't want you to know that we are not prosecuting certain crimes for the reason that half the current and past administration would be implicated. Oh, and laws apply to the peasants, not us."

[mancini]

Gee, this must be real important for him to address it while there are so many other pressing matters to attend to. Don't you think?

[Alberta's Child]

While any attempt by a government official to hide evidence from the public is not good, please keep in mind that when Congress subpoenas these documents they do not have to release them to the public themselves.

Ask yourself if someone like Maxine Waters should have any access to privileged information under any circumstances.

[1234]

GO DAN GO!!!!!!!!!!

[FreeTally]

This has nothing to do with 9/11 or terrorists. Its about covering his butt.

[steve50]

"covering each others tracks"

I think you hit on it. They have reached the point where they hang together or they hang seperately.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Bush Invokes Executive Privilege   (7:15 a.m. PST Dec. 13)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush has invoked executive privilege for the first time to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from decades-old Boston murders to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe, The Associated Press has learned.