Leahy says Bush's executive privilege assertion worse than Nixon's
Senator: It's time for Karl Rove to testify
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Senator Patrick Leahy said the Bush White House was more reckless in its exercise of executive power than President Richard Nixon Wednesday morning. The statement came as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a tempestuous hearing on the firing of 8 US Attorneys, with Sara Taylor, a former top aide to Karl Rove, as its witness.
"The White House lawyers have resorted to an unprecedented blanket assertion of executive privilege," Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee's chairman, said in his opening statement. "I didn't even hear it during President Nixon's term."
He then asked, "What is the White House trying to hide?"
Another Senator criticized the White House for allowing young staffers like Taylor to pay the price for decisions made at more senior levels.
"Karl Rove should be sitting at this table, not you," said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Taylor was subpoenaed to appear before the committee in June. On Saturday, her attorney, W. Neil Eggleston, made clear that she would abide by President George W. Bush's invocation of executive privilege over her testimony, and asked that she not be subjected to an "unseemly tug of war." Her appearance before the Judiciary Committee was an effort to balance Bush's move with a Congressional subpoena. A failure to comply with the subpoena could result in the Senate holding her in criminal contempt.
Leahy in his opening statement called for Taylor's "honest testimony" and gave her a clear warning.
"The White House is contemptuous of the Congress...I urge Ms. Taylor not to follow that contemptuous position and the White House down that path," the Senator said, appearing to raise the specter of a criminal contempt charge.
But Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the committee's ranking minority member, argued against any such threat being acted upon.
"It is my hope that we will not proceed on the criminal contempt citation," he said. "If it goes to court, it will take two years...I urge my colleagues to take as much as we can right now, and come back later."
Ex-Rove aide cites Bush letter as blocking her testimony
In her opening statement, Taylor called herself "a willing and cooperative private citizen," but said that she must abide by the President's assertion of executive privilege in a letter that was sent to her by White House Counsel Fred Fielding.
"Disclosure of this information [related to the firing of the US Attorneys] would interfere with the operation of the executive branch," she said. "The current disputes between the executive and legislative branches of our government are much bigger than me."
In questioning with Senator Leahy, Taylor insisted that the US Attorneys controversy played no role in her decision to leave the Bush White House after more than 6 years of service.
"I informed Mr. Rove of my decision in December," she said.
Leahy also quizzed Taylor on her use of a Republican National Committee e-mail account. She acknowledged using it "regularly."
"The system...was set up early in the administration to make sure that presidential appointees who on occasion had to address political matters never violated the Hatch Act," she said. "I had two computers, two blackberries, and as somebody who generally tried to be efficient with time, I'd sometimes just use the wrong computer."
Leahy was not satisfied with Taylor's responses to a series of questions that the former White House political aide received regarding the RNC e-mail accounts.
"I feel like we're doing a test run for testimony from the Attorney General," he quipped.
Senator Specter turned to a discussion of Tim Griffin, the former interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas who formerly worked under Taylor in the White House.
When Specter asked Taylor if Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers sought to have Griffin installed, she curiously did not assert Bush's executive privilege in answering the question.
"I don't specifically know," she said, after Specter asked if she could not answer the question because of executive privilege.
She also agreed to Senator Specter's statement that Griffin was a 'logical' replacement who was well regarded in the White House.
Senator Dianne Feinstein then asked a series of questions to which Taylor cited executive privilege in response.
But when Feinstein asked if she had added or removed names from the list of Attorneys to be fired, she said she was not involved.
Senators dispute reach of 'executive privilege'
In subsequent questioning, Senators contested the reach of the President's assertion of executive privilege. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) pointed out that Taylor's answers to some questions and refusal to respond to others demonstrated the tenuous nature of Bush's position.
"In fact you have answered some questions about views in the White House," he said. "Senator Specter asked you for instance about how Tim Griffin was viewed in the White House, those are deliberations of someone in the White House."
He then added, "I think it shows two things. It shows how this broad claim of privilege just doesn't show up. And I think it shows that it's a weak claim, and your testifying to some of these things and not others because of your genuine desire to answer questions that you can."
Schumer then asked Taylor if she had received calls from Republican political agents around the country regarding the performance of any particular US Attorneys. After Taylor attempted to assert executive privilege on these questions, Schumer questioned the move, stating that the 'external communication' in this case came from individuals outside of the executive branch.
After a series of deliberations with her attorney off the microphone, Taylor acknowledged that she could answer the question. She then said she did not recall receiving any communications from external political agents about any US Attorneys.
In questioning with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Taylor later acknowledged that she had perhaps gone over the line into certain areas of executive privilege.
"Perhaps you're correct and that did not fall under the President's executive privilege and I should have said nothing," she said.
Durbin: 'Karl Rove should be sitting at this table'
Senator Durbin also criticized the White House for creating the situation where Taylor was forced to site before the committee. He argued that younger staff have had to pay the price for decisions made at a senior level.
"Karl Rove should be sitting at this table, not you," he said to Taylor.
She also slammed Democrats who have accused Tim Griffin of implementing vote caging schemes that disproportionately disenfranchised African-American voters.
"I think it is horrible what is being said about Tim Griffin, and I don't believe he would ever do anything like that," she said.
In questioning with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Taylor also questioned the idea that Griffin was a poor candidate for a US Attorney because of his role as a top Republican opposition researcher.
"I would say to the contrary, I think the fact that this person ran a large research operation and has an incredible set of skills with respect to research would serve him incredibly well as a prosecutor," Taylor asserted.
Background: Taylor identified in earlier hearings, e-mails
Taylor's role in the US Attorneys firing has been made clear in earlier testimony from Justice Department officials.
Former Justice Department White House Liaison Monica Goodling suggested Taylor had been a key decision-maker in the Attorneys firings in June.
"There was an e-mail that Mr. Sampson forwarded to me, I think, on December 4, if I'm remembering correctly, that said that it had been circulated to different offices within the White House and that they had all signed off," Goodling told Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee when she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. "I think it said that White House political had signed off. Political is actually headed by Sara Taylor but does report to Mr. Rove, so I don't know for sure."
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) also asked Alberto Gonzales's former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson in a March Senate Judiciary Committee hearing why he believed the appointment of Tim Griffin as interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas was important to Karl Rove.
"That e-mail was based on an assumption," Sampson answered of an e-mail he wrote. "I knew that Sara Taylor and Scott Jennings had expressed interest in promoting Mr. Griffin for appointment to be U.S. attorney, and I assumed, because they reported to Karl Rove, that he was interested in that."
E-mails turned over to Congressional investigators also showed Taylor's deep involvement in the installation of Griffin, who was also a top aide to Rove.
A Feb. 16 e-mail showed that a White House official, Sara Taylor, was upset with the Justice Department for their installation of Griffin, who like Taylor was a former White House aide to Karl Rove.
"Tim was put in a horrible position; hung out to dry w/ no heads up. You forced him to do what he did; this is not good for his long term career," she wrote to Sampson.
She also complained that Paul McNulty, Deputy Attorney General, was unwilling to call Bud Cummins, the US Attorney Griffin replaced, "lazy - which is why we got rid of him in the first place."
As Cummins began to talk to the media about his removal from office, Taylor also showed herself to be ready to go on the offensive politically.
"I normally don't like attacking friends, but since Bud Cummins is talking to everyone - why don't we tell the deal on him?" she asked Sampson in a Feb. 7 e-mail.
Notably, Taylor used a gwb43.com e-mail address, one of the domain names managed by the Republican National Committee, and not archived under standard White House document preservation procedures.
Taylor also objected to an earlier letter that the Justice Department planned to send to Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) about Griffin's installation.
"I'm concerned we imply that we'll pull down Griffin's nomination should Pryor object," she wrote on Jan. 25 to Sampson and William Kelley in the office of White House Counsel Harriet Miers.
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