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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1473)	12/13/2001 1:06:36 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Respond to of 15516

Thanks for that article. Tiger, wherein Dan Burton declares: " THIS IS NOT A MONARCHY" I think we should write him showing support before it does become one... 12/13/2001 - Updated 11:26 AM ET Bush invokes privilege to keep documents secret WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush invoked executive privilege for the first time Thursday to keep Congress from seeing documents of prosecutors' decision-making in cases ranging from a decades-old Boston murder to the Clinton-era fund-raising probe. The administration informed a House committee of the decision prior to a congressional hearing on the Boston case involving the FBI's handling of informants. In a memo to Attorney General John Ashcroft, the president explained his decision. "It is my decision that you should not release these documents or otherwise make them available to the committee," Bush wrote in the memo obtained by AP. "I have decided to assert executive privilege with respect to the documents." Bush wrote that the "disclosure to Congress of confidential advice to the attorney general regarding the appointment of a special counsel and confidential recommendations to Department of Justice officials regarding whether to bring criminal charges would inhibit the candor necessary to the effectiveness of the deliberative process by which the department makes prosecutorial decisions." Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, the Republican House chairman whose committee sought the documents, decried the decision and said it wrongly handicapped Congress for overseeing the government. "This is not a monarchy," Burton said at the start of Thursday's hearing. "The legislative branch has oversight responsibility to make sure there is no corruption in the executive branch." Burton said for the time being he would hold additional investigative hearings into whether Bush was misusing executive privilege. Another option would be for Burton to take the president to court for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the documents, but that would require the cooperation of the full Congress. The House is controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats. The decision immediately affects a subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee for documents related to the FBI's handling of mob informants in Boston dating to the 1960s. More importantly, it sets a new policy in the works for months in which the administration will resist lawmakers' requests to view prosecutorial decision-making documents that have been routinely turned over to Congress in years past. "I believe congressional access to these documents would be contrary to the national interest," Bush wrote in his memo to Ashcroft. Executive privilege is a doctrine recognized by the courts that ensures presidents can get candid advice in private without fear of its becoming public. The privilege, however, is best known for the unsuccessful attempts by former Presidents Nixon and Clinton to keep evidence secret during impeachment investigations. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales recommended Bush invoke the privilege earlier this fall. While invoking the privilege, Bush instructed Ashcroft to have the Justice Department "remain willing to work informally with the committee to provide such information as it can, consistent with these instructions and without violating the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers." Burton's committee for months has been seeking Justice Department memos about prosecutors' decisions in cases involving the handling of mob informants in Boston, Democratic fund raising, a former Clinton White House official and a former federal drug enforcement agent. The committee subpoenaed Ashcroft, demanding those documents in the fall and scheduled a hearing Thursday to examine the Boston case. That case stems from revelations that Joseph Salvati of Boston spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit even though the FBI had evidence of his innocence. Salvati was freed in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant. Several such memos were shared with Congress during both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most recently, in the 1990s, such documents were turned over to the Whitewater, fund-raising, pardons and impeachment investigations by lawmakers. But the concept of extending executive privilege to Justice Department decisions isn't new. During the Reagan years, the privilege was cited as the reason the department did not tell Congress about some memos in a high-profile environmental case. And Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno, advised Clinton in 1999 that he could invoke the privilege to keep from disclosing documents detailing department views on 16 pardon cases.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1473)	12/16/2001 1:34:15 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

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. [ Send this story to a friend ]