GOP leaders want to file Bolten-Miers court brief

Senior House Republicans have asked a federal court to allow them to weigh in against Democrats’ attempt to force two White House aides to testify about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) are among the Republicans who want to submit their arguments against Democratic contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers. Top GOP Judiciary Committee Reps. Lamar Smith (Texas) and Chris Cannon (Utah) joined the two leaders in the request.

{mosads}In a brief filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the House Republicans said the legal wrangling with the administration could seriously erode congressional subpoena power and strengthen the executive branch.

The four Republicans said they have opposed the Democrats’ pursuit of a contempt citation because getting the judicial branch involved in the dispute could severely undermine the House’s ability to exercise oversight on the executive branch in the future.

“It is in their continuing interest in the preservation of the House’s oversight prerogatives, and in sparing the courts a premature need to enter into the dispute, that prompts them to offer their views to the court,” GOP lawyers wrote on behalf of the House Republicans.  

Republicans are concerned that the Democratic complaint could disrupt the usual political negotiations between Congress and the White House that take place to resolve disputes.

“Hanging in the balance, for example, is whether the judiciary will alter the balance of power between the political branches by rendering answers to questions such as whether the president’s most intimate advisers are immune from compelled testimony before Congress,” the attorneys wrote.