By D. Cupples | A recently released book excerpt by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan states that he had publicly asserted false information about the outing of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Keenly aware of his duty to us taxpayers, House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman is still determined to find out what happened.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has cooperated with the Oversight Committee, but the White House hasn't. Waxman recently wrote a letter to new Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking for help and noting that former Attorney General Janet Reno cooperated with the Oversight Committee when the Clinton Administration was investigated. In part, the letter states:
"I am writing to seek your assistance in the Oversight Committee's investigation into the circumstances surrounding the leak of the covert identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. As the recent disclosure from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan underscores, there remain many unanswered questions surrounding this incident and the involvement of the President, the Vice President, and other senior White House officials in the security breach and the White House response....
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"Over the summer, Mr. Fitzgerald agreed to provide relevant documents to the Committee, including records of interviews with senior White House officials. Unfortunately, the White House has been blocking Mr. Fitzgerald from providing key documents....
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"During the Clinton Administration, your predecessor, Janet Reno, made an independent judgment and provided numerous FBI interview reports to the Committee, including reports of interviews with President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and three White House Chiefs of Staff. I have been informed that Attorney General Reno neither sought nor obtained White House consent before providing these interview records to the Committee. I believe the Justice Department should exercise the same independence in this case.
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"I have been careful in my dealings with Special Counsel Fitzgerald to narrow the Committee's request to documents that would not infringe on his prosecutorial independence or intrude upon grand jury secrecy.... To date, however, Mr. Fitzgerald has been frustrated in his attempts to transmit documents relating to White House officials...." (See letter)
In short, the Oversight Committee's information requests are perfectly proper in the legal sense, so nothing should stop Mukasey from allowing Fitzgerald to give certain documents to the Committee. At the end of his letter, Waxman notes:
"The role of the Attorney General is to administer the laws with impartiality. The Justice Department provided the exact same information to Congress during the Clinton Administration. There is no special standard for President Bush that exempts him and his senior advisors from responsible congressional oversight." (See letter)
I suspect that President Bush disagrees. During the confirmation hearings, Mukasey insisted that he would administer laws even when the White House didn't want him to. How Mukasey responds to Waxman's request will give us a glimpse of what our new Attorney General is really made of.
Other BN-Politics Posts:
* White House Whines About Congressional Oversight: Valid Complaint?
* McClellan Says He Gave False Info About Plame Leak: Under Orders?
* Cheney's Bizarre Defense of Libby and the Plame Outing
* Conservative Andrew Sullivan on the Libby Pardon
* Pardon This: Bush Rescues Libby from Excessive Prison Term
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