Washington -- President Bush invoked executive privilege yesterday for the first time in his administration, rejecting a congressional subpoena for prosecutors' records related to a Clinton administration campaign finance investigation and a 30-year-old Boston mob case.
The flexing of executive muscle outraged lawmakers from both parties, who called it an unprecedented effort to deny Congress access to records that in the past had been routinely granted.
But it drew approval from some GOP legal experts, who lauded Bush's attempt to restore the notion of executive privilege, badly eroded during the Clinton years.
Disclosure, Bush wrote in a memo instructing Attorney General John Ashcroft not to release the documents, would "inhibit the candor necessary" to the deliberative process in the executive branch and would be "contrary to the national interest."
"This is not a monarchy," said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican who chairs the House Government Reform Committee, at a hearing yesterday focusing on the Boston case. "The legislative branch has oversight responsibility to make sure there is no corruption in the executive branch."
His committee had subpoenaed documents regarding the FBI's handling of mob informants in Boston dating to the 1960s, specifically excluding those relating to open cases. The panel had also subpoenaed records dealing with former Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged campaign finance abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore.
Burton is particularly incensed about the now-closed case of Joe Salvati, a man the FBI knew was innocent when he went to prison for 30 years on murder charges. Burton said Salvati had been convicted on the basis of lies told on the stand by Joe "The Animal" Barboza, a prized FBI informant who had a grudge against Salvati.
The committee also had subpoenaed Ashcroft himself. He was originally scheduled to appear Sept. 13, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks postponed the hearing until yesterday. Michael Horowitz, chief of staff of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, appeared in his stead.
Horowitz acknowledged Congress' oversight role and said the department has provided the panel more than 3,500 pages of documents concerning the FBI's handling of informants in Boston. What Justice has not released are "internal deliberative memoranda" that outline advice to decision-makers by line attorneys and memos that reveal confidential advice to the attorney general, Horowitz said.
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |