A US Senate committee on Thursday slapped a subpoena on President George W. Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove, ratcheting up a legal showdown with the White House over fired prosecutors.
The Senate Judiciary Committee also issued a subpoena against Scott Jennings, deputy White House political director, requiring testimony and documents to a probe into the affair.
The move came a day after a House of Representatives committee issued contempt of Congress citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former legal counsel Harriet Miers after they refused to testify.
Bush had evoked the doctrine of 'executive privilege' to prevent them appearing before Congress and a probe about the sackings of nine federal prosecutors, who Bush critics claim were fired for political reasons.
"It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort," said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy.
