White House remains defiant on Miers, Bolten testimony

Despite a court ruling last week rejecting its claim of executive privilege, the White House still rebuffs congressional subpoenas for chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers.

The two on Thursday requested that federal District Judge John Bates stay the ruling until the case is appealed. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), White House counsel Fred Fielding said the administration would await the outcome of its appeal before “entertaining any requests for Mr. Bolten’s compliance with the Senate Judiciary subpoena.”

{mosads}Fielding also noted that any request for testimony from former White House adviser Karl Rove would produce the same response.

Leahy had sent a letter to Fielding last week asking him to advise the committee when Bolten would comply with the subpoena in light of the judge’s ruling.

Bates, in his decision, rejected the Bush administration’s claim that White House aides have blanket immunity from congressional subpoenas and ordered Miers to testify and the White House to turn over a log describing documents it withheld from Congress. 

The subpoenas sought testimony about what role, if any, senior White House officials played in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year, as well as the improper political hirings of attorneys and interns at the Department of Justice.

Leahy blasted the White House’s ongoing resistance to the subpoena, saying that it was yet another example of the Bush administration flouting the rule of law.

“This continuing contempt of Congress is another example of the lengths to which this administration will go and how it uses government lawyers to protect its actions from scrutiny and increase its power, rather than respect the rule of law,” he said in a statement.