Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Gonzales Zapped by Subpoena Land
In breaking news, the Associated Press and the Washington Post are reporting that Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is tired of Gonzales playing pussy-foot with his committee and has slapped a subpoena for all "e-mails related to presidential adviser Karl Rove and the firings of eight federal prosecutores" to get to the bottom of Attorney-gate.
[T]he Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena to Gonzales seeking all e-mails in Justice Department custody from presidential advisor Karl Rove related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The demand included e-mails turned over to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald as part of the CIA leak investigation.Leahy was not the least bit amused when he learned of a secret internal order by Gonzales in March 2006 that gave two party loyalists with little experience the unprecedented authority to "hir[e] and fir[e] most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department.” And how Gonzales failed to disclose the earth shattering memorandum to his committee.
"It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee's inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to Gonzales. The subpoena gives Gonzales until May 15 to turn over the information.
Not accepting the White House's explanation that some of the Rove-related e-mails may have been lost, Leahy subpoenaed any in the custody of the Justice Department. Leahy pointed to Rove's lawyer's statement that some of those the White House claims might be lost had been turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.
You see, the dog didn't really eat the homework.
It was unclear whether any of those were related to the prosecutor firings, but congressional investigators believe that if Fitzgerald could retrieve some e-mails for his investigation, the ones related to the firings of U.S. attorneys are recoverable as well.
Sure looks like the former chief and counsel at the Justice Department have some 'splaining to do, as does Gonzales and up the food chain to Rove and Bush.
// posted by Howling Latina @ 4:03 PM 
