Free Republic

With the showdown between top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Janet Napolitano heating up, Napolitano has dispatched a 21-man team to respond to Issa’s document and testimony requests, a DHS source says. The team includes 15 lawyers and six “support staff” who have logged over 600 hours working to find documents and review them before sending more than 3,000 pages to Issa, the source says.(Snip) Tuesday, Issa subpoenaed the testimony of two key career officials at DHS, the first time Issa is using the force of law to compel information from the

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled. David P. Blackwood, the commission's general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded "without any success" and the "dearth of cooperation" had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas. "We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and...

Lawyers for a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney have issued subpoenas to The New York Times and one of its former reporters to provide information in his obstruction of justice case, the Times reported on Thursday. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of perjury, making a false statement and obstruction of justice over leaks about the identity of a CIA operative. Former Times reporter Judith Miller testified before the grand jury after serving 85 days in jail to protect a source of the disclosure who was later identified as...