Conyers, Sanchez express ‘extreme disappointment’ with White House

In a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding Monday, Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) expressed their “extreme disappointment” in the White House’s unwillingness to cooperate in their investigation into the firings of U.S. attorneys and threatened a “compulsory process” if the White House continues to be unresponsive.

“Even without a single document or witness interview provided by the White House,” the congressmen wrote, “it is clear that the White House played an important role in the events concerning the U.S. Attorney controversy."

{mosads}“If the White House persists in refusing to provide information to the House Judiciary Committee, or even to discuss providing such information, on a voluntary basis,” they wrote, “we will have no alternative but to begin to resort to compulsory process in order to carry out our oversight responsibilities.”

Conyers and Sanchez, the chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law respectively, provided a timeline of their fruitless requests. On March 9, they sent a letter to the White House requesting its cooperation. On March 21, Sanchez’s subcommittee authorized subpoenas for the testimony of White House aide Karl Rove, White House Counsel Harriet Miers and special assistant to the president J. Scott Jennings as well as e-mails relating to the firings. Finally, on March 22, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Conyers rejected Fielding’s offer of private interviews with White House officials without a transcript.

“Since that time,” Sanchez and Conyers wrote, “we have been willing and able to meet to consider other means of resolving our dispute, but we have received no response to our letters or proposals.”

The lawmakers noted that in a March interview, Rove stated that “he relayed complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Justice Department,” and included a November 7, 2006, e-mail from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, to then-Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty outlining a plan for the removal of six U.S. attorneys, including Iglesias.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that we will not be able to complete our investigation absent full and complete cooperation from the White House,” the lawmakers said in their letter. They added that it would be “constitutionally irresponsible” for them not to seek full access to all materials involved in the firings.