Mukasey's recommendation of exec privilege to hide Dick transcript revealed

From Mukasey's seven-page letter to Bush (pdf):

ASSERTION OF EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE CONCERNING
THE SPECIAL COUNSEL’S INTERVIEWS OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
AND SENIOR WHITE HOUSE STAFF

It is legally permissible for the President to assert executive privilege in response to a congressional subpoena for reports of Department of Justice interviews with the Vice President and senior White House staff taken during the Department’s investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In the 7 page letter, the Justice Department this week released Attorney General Michael Mukasey's recommendation that President Bush invoke executive privilege in refusing to release to Congress transcripts of Dick Cheney's conversations with the FBI.

dated July 15, argues that disclosure of such records would hinder future presidents' ability to receive guidance from their advisers because Cheney's conversations detailed internal White House deliberations. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested the transcripts along with other documents related to its investigation into the leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.


A bipartisan committee report has already determined the claim was inappropriate, and a separate report (pdf), that the committee has delayed voting on recommends holding Mukasey in contempt of Congress. It's unclear if the committee will ever vote on that report; a spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Mukasey's letter, which was released by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel Monday, provides a fuller look at the Bush administration's attempt to keep its secrets regarding the Plame leak, which many observers believe the vice president orchestrated. Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was the only person convicted in Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe, but Bush commuted his sentence.

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