USAgate: Impatient Senator Leahy subpoenas for Rove's emails.

<--Here is the subpoena.

Tired of waiting for a response, Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) issued a subpoena for any of Karl Rove's emails in the Justice Department's possession that might be relevant to the U.S. attorney firings. That includes emails sent from Rove's White House account (which apparently doesn't get much use) and emails from his account issued by the Republican National Committee.

Note: Since the subpoena is to the Justice Department and not to the White House, it sidesteps any executive privilege concerns. And it seems possible that it could even claim internal White House emails since the subpoena specifically includes emails that were obtained by Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the Plame investigation.

Very clever move by Leahy. Since Leahy is a Senator and a former prosecutor, he knows the legal system and the game by the Chimpster. He knows that if he subpeonas the White House, the White House can turn around and claim executive privilege. But, by going around the White House and subpoena the Justice Department, executive privilege cannot protect the Justice Department.