From Waxman' website:
The Justice Department has informed the Committee that it will not comply with a congressionally issued subpoena to produce interview documents from the investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity, including documents from the interviews of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Chairman Waxman wrote to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to request information regarding the terms under which Fitzgerald interviewed President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the course of his investigation into the leak.
Here is the letter from the DOJ:
A couple things to point out is that Special Prosecutor and U.S. Attorney of Chicago Patrick Fitzgerald have cooperated with Waxman to obtain the information and documents that are needed for Waxman. However, Fitzgerald was blocked by the White House to not provide certain documents to Waxman. More and more the White House is making this case appear as a cover-up. With Scott McClellan to the Oversight Committee on the involvement of Bush and Cheney in leaking a CIA covert operative's name, it gives more credence to Waxman's office of a much deeper corrupted Administration and Department of Justice. A couple of interesting statements that I saw in the DOJ letter to Waxman:
"In seeking to accommodate the Committee's requests, however, we must take into account core Executive Branch confidentiality interests and fundamental separation of powers principles, and we must avoid taking steps that could compromise the effectiveness of future criminal investigations involving White House personnel."
Sounds like the Nixon playbook. It is interesting that the confidentiality of Executive Branch is mentioned for the reason why DOJ can't comply to the subpoena. WH aide David Addington said last week in House committee hearing that Cheney was not part of the Executive Branch. So, what branch does Cheney belongs to? There is more:
"We are not prepared to make the same accommodation for reports of interviews with the President and Vice President because the confidentiality interests relating to those documents are of a greater constitutional magnitude. The President and the Vice President are the two nationally elected constitutional officers under our Government. The President heads the Executive Branch and, as the Congress has by law recognized, the Vice President often advises and assists the President in the President's performance of his executive duties."
One minute Cheney is working in the Executive Branch and the minute Cheney is not part of the Executive Branch. Obviously, the DOJ is stalling this subpoena and case. Finally, this interesting statement:
"We are aware that in 1999 the Department made available to this Committee the FBI reports of interviews with President Clinton and Vice President Gore that were taken during the Department's campaign finance investigation. We consider that situation to be fundamentally different from the present situation. We understand that the intrusion on Executive Branch confidentiality interests was significantly less because the Clinton Administration interview reports presumably did not involve the substance of internal White House deliberations and communications concerning official White House business, but rather concerned campaign fundraising political activities."
Nice try by the DOJ but Clinton and Gore were in office during this finance investigation which was considered a criminal act. Two different cases but same crime: criminal act. What Cheney and Bush are pulling is the same strategy in Watergate scandal. Nixon refused the hand over the tapes but he later did. Just as Congress enacted Articles of Impeachment against Nixon, so they can in the case of Bush and Cheney.
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