Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

White House Counsel Fred Fielding rejected subpoenas from Congress seeking documents and testimony from former White House aides to President Bush in the Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney firings scandal .

The full text of Fielding’s letter can be read below.

On June 13th, the Senate and House subpoenaed former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Political Director Sarah Taylor.

The subpoena for ex-White House Counsel Harriet Miers sought “[c]omplete and unredacted versions, including paper and electronic versions, of any and all documents in your possession, custody or control related to the Committee’s investigation into the preservation of prosecutorial independence and the Department of Justice’s politicization of the hiring and firing of United States Attorneys.”

Fielding tells Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (Dem. - Vt.) and House Committee on the Judiciary Chairman John Conyears (Dem. - Mich.) that Executive Privilege protects Pres. Bush from having to respond to the subpoenas: “where the President’s authority to appoint and remove U.S. Attorneys is at stake, the institutional interest of the Executive Branch is very strong.”

Using litigator’s language, Fielding stressed that “the President’s assertion of [Executive Privilege] here comports with prior practices in similar contests, and that it has been appropriately documented.” (emphasis added).

White House Counsel Fred Fielding rejected the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas served yesterday demanding information about the legal rationale and justifications behind the White House’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, or what President Bush calls the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.”

As anticipated, Fielding is claiming that Executive Privilege exempts the White House from having to comply with the subpoenas, including subpoenas previously served on former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Political Director Sarah Taylor.

Here is the full text of Fielding’s letter and its legal rationale:

White House Counsel Fred Fielding and the lawyers working for him might have to make other plans this Jully 4th — their clients just got served with subpoenas demanding the production of documents and information about President Bush’s domestic eavesdropping and electronic surveillance program.

Dick Cheney received a subpoena.

An all-encompassing subpoena was served on the White house.

The National Security Council and Dept. of Justice received subpoenas.

And finally, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales got a nice letter from Chairman Leahy.

The Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena this morning (See below) for ex-White House Counsel Harriet Miers.

The subponea directs her, in part, to give the Committee by July 12, 2007 “[c]omplete and unredacted versions, including paper and electronic versions, of any and all documents in your possession, custody or control related to the Committee’s investigation into the preservation of prosecutorial independence and the Department of Justice’s politicization of the hiring and firing of United States Attorneys.”

You can read Harriet Mier’s subpoena here:

Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary said: “Let me be clear: this subpoena is not a request, it is a demand on behalf of the American people for the White House to make available the documents and individuals we are requesting to help us answer the questions that remain. The breadcrumbs in this investigation have always led to 1600 Pennsylvania. This investigation will not end until the White House complies with the demands of this subpoena in a timely and reasonable manner so that we may get to the bottom of this.”