Appeals Court Refuses To Force Bush Aides To Cooperate In Congressional Investigation Over Removal of U.S. Attorneys
A federal appeals court won’t force top Bush administration aides to cooperate with Congress over its investigation of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today that it would not have enough time to resolve the issue before the Congress’s term ends on Jan. 3. “Even if expedited, this controversy will not be fully and finally resolved by the judicial branch … before the 110th Congress ends on January 3, 2009,” the appeals court states in Committee on the Judiciary v. Miers. In the summer, a federal judge ruled that former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current presidential chief of staff Josh Bolton must cooperate with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the matter. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told The Associated Press that he thought the appeals court’s ruling was “unfortunate,” but that he held out hope it would be overturned and that “Harriet Miers and other key witnesses will appear before the House Judiciary Committee, and that we will get to the bottom of the Bush administration’s disgraceful politicization of the Justice Department.”
In September, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed a prosecutor to investigate the removal of the U.S. Attorneys. Mukasey’s action came hours after the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) released a report of more than 300 pages revealing the political motivations behind the firings of the attorneys. That report was preceded by two other reports from the OIG/OPR detailing the politicization of the Justice Department. The first report issued June 24 concluded that candidates for nonpolitical jobs at the Justice Department were rejected because of their affiliations with progressive organizations, including the American Constitution Society.