Bush denies Congress papers for FBI probe
The Boston Globe
Panel denounces claim of executive privilege
By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff, 12/14/2001
WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday invoked executive privilege to
block a congressional subpoena exploring abuses in the Boston FBI office,
prompting the chairman of a House committee to lambaste his fellow Republicans
and triggering what one congressman said is the start of ''a constitutional
confrontation.''
''You tell the president there's going to be war between the president and this
committee,'' Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who heads the House
Government Reform Committee, told a Justice Department official during what was
supposed to be a routine prehearing handshake.
''His dad was at a 90 percent approval rating and he lost, and the same thing can
happen to him,'' Burton added, jabbing his finger and glaring at Carl Thorsen, a
deputy assistant attorney general who was attempting to introduce a superior who
was testifying.
''We've got a dictatorial president and a Justice Department that does not want
Congress involved. ... Your guy's acting like he's king.''
The searing tone continued for more than four hours from Republicans and
Democrats, liberals and conservatives. All objected to the order Bush signed
Wednesday and made public yesterday. It claimed executive privilege in refusing to
hand over prosecutors' memos in criminal cases, including an investigation of
campaign-finance abuses, saying doing so ''would be contrary to the national
interest.''
Committee members said the order's sweeping language created a shift in
presidential policy and practices dating back to the Harding administration. They
complained also that it followed a pattern in which the Bush administration has
limited access to presidential historical records, refused to give Congress
documents about the vice president's energy task force, and unilaterally announced
plans for military commissions that would try suspected terrorists in secret.
Representative William D. Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat and former district
attorney, said: ''This is the beginning of a constitutional confrontation. In a short
period of time, this Department of Justice has manifested tendencies that were of
concern to Senate members during the confirmation hearings for John Ashcroft as
attorney general.''
The Government Reform Committee is investigating the FBI's use of confidential
informants while the bureau investigated New England organized crime activities.
The committee seeks information on deals FBI officials struck with suspected
murderers Stephen ''the Rifleman'' Flemmi and James ''Whitey'' Bulger.
It is also exploring what FBI officials, including former director J. Edgar Hoover,
knew about the innocence of Joseph Salvati of Massachusetts. Salvati spent 30
years in prison for the 1965 murder of Edward ''Teddy'' Deegan in Chelsea, but
the Governor's Council commuted his sentence in 1997. His conviction was
overturned in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that
would have cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant.
''The federal government wanted Joe Salvati to die in jail because dead men don't
tell tales,'' said Salvati's lawyer, Victor J. Garo, at the hearing yesterday.
In buttressing the executive order, Michael E. Horowitz, chief of staff for the Justice
Department's criminal division, told the committee that providing documents about
prosecutorial decision-making could have a ''chilling effect'' on the advice that
lower-level attorneys may be willing to provide to top prosecutors.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Ronald Reagan invoked such a
privilege three times, while Bill Clinton did so on four occasions. Forms of privilege
were also claimed in the Nixon administration during the Watergate investigation.
Fleischer said the Justice Department has already turned over 3,500 pages to
Burton's committee, although members complained that many were heavily
redacted.
The Justice Department offered to provide summaries of 20 documents it believes
would be covered by the subpoena.
Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat from Newton, said he and Burton, a
conservative, had sometimes disagreed on the committee's inquiries into the Clinton
administration. He said the chairman's strong words for his fellow Republicans
showed he had not merely been partisan.
Turning to Horowitz, Frank asked why the Bush administration might cover up
mistakes made in a previous administration. ''I don't know what bureaucratic reflex
drives people to do this,'' the congressman said.
Glen Johnson can be reached by e-mail at johnson@globe.com.
This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 12/14/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
Copyright 2001 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc.
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