WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee sued former White House counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten on Monday, setting up a constitutional clash over the Bush administration’s refusal to provide testimony and documents about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
The lawsuit says Miers is not immune from the obligation to testify and that she and Bolten must identify all documents that are being withheld from Congress regarding what Democrats say were politically motivated dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers said, “We will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress.”
Conyers, D-Mich., said he is confident the federal courts will agree that the Bush administration’s position is at odds with constitutional principles.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge John Bates, an appointee of President Bush and a former prosecutor in the Whitewater criminal investigation of the Clintons in the 1990s.
The White House said House Democrats “continue to focus on partisan theater.”
“The confidentiality that the president receives from his senior advisers and the constitutional principle of separation of powers must be protected from overreaching, and we are confident that the courts will agree with us,” said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
The House committee early last year subpoenaed Bolten for documents and Miers for testimony in trying to make a case that the White House directed the firing of nine U.S. attorneys because they were not supportive enough of Republicans’ political agenda.
On Bush’s behalf, White House counsel Fred Fielding said such information is private and covered by executive privilege, the doctrine intended to protect the confidentiality of presidential communications.
The lawsuit pointed out that the White House is making a blanket claim of executive privilege, despite the administration’s saying the president was not involved in the decision to force U.S. attorneys to resign.
The House passed contempt citations by a 223-32 vote that most Republicans boycotted.
