Leopold: RNC Now Seeks Shelter of Executive Privilege

From Truthout:

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Report
Tuesday 14 August 2007

The Republican National Committee said it will not abide by a subpoena and turn over documents to a Congressional committee investigating the firings of at least eight US attorneys last year because the RNC is waiting to see if the White House will assert executive privilege over RNC documents at the center of the controversy, according to an outside law firm retained by the RNC.

The White House has asserted executive privilege to block senior administration officials from testifying before Congress about their involvement in the decision to fire the federal prosecutors. Moreover, the White House has cited executive privilege in declining to turn over specific documents to Congress that may shed further light on the circumstances behind the attorney firings. The US attorneys believe they were fired for partisan political reasons. In some instances, the US attorneys said they were pressured by Republican lawmakers and RNC operatives to file criminal charges against Democrats at the center of public corruption probes prior to last year's midterm election as well as individual cases of voter fraud, which the attorneys said was based on weak evidence, in order to cast a dark cloud over Democratic incumbents and swing election results toward Republican challengers.

"Instead, US Attorneys are inferior officers under Article II, section 2 of the Constitution, and are nominated by the President because Congress has provided for that authority," Conyers said in his August 2 letter to Kelner.

Kelner's response to Conyers states that the White House counsel's office informed him the documents Conyers's committee is attempting to obtain "appears to be outside the scope of the Committee's investigative authority, which is limited to areas which Congress may legislate, and instructed the RNC not to produce the Category Two documents at this time."

"Accordingly, the RNC is awaiting a determination by the White House as to whether it will invoke executive privilege over those documents," Kelner's letter says. "In the meantime, the RNC is proceeding deliberately and cautiously by withholding them pending the outcome of the White House's discussion with the Committee and concerning the White House's decision concerning invoking the privilege."

Kelner said the RNC would be "willing to accept your invitation to meet with your staff, together with representatives of the White House Counsel's office to discuss these issues in greater detail."

See also: RNC Letter to Conyers