Congress in contempt charge for Bush aides
Thursday, 26 Jul 2007 09:23
The White House aides have not disclosed any information
The judiciary committee of the United States House of Representatives has voted to issue contempt of Congress charges against two White House aides.
Chief of staff Josh Bolten and former legal counsel Harriet Miers are the subjects of the citation over information Congress is demanding related to the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors.
Critics of president George Bush say his administration's decision to sack the prosecutors was politically motivated.
A subsequent Congressional investigation issued subpoenas to both Mr Bolten and Ms Miers, but Mr Bush invoked executive privilege so the information did not have to be imparted.
After the committee vote, the decision to issue the contempt of Congress charges will likely be put before a full house vote before being passed on to the district attorney's office.
Democrat and leader of the house Nancy Pelosi said: "I am hopeful that today's vote will help the administration see the light and release the information to which the judiciary committee is entitled."
She added that the contempt charges were "part of a broader attempt by House Democrats to restore our nation's fundamental system of checks and balances".
However, the White House reacted angrily to the news, dismissing the proceedings as something Democrats know will not stick.
"This is pathetic," press secretary Tony Snow said. "What you have right now is partisanship on Capitol Hill that quite often boils down to insults, insinuations, inquisitions and investigations rather than pursuing the normal business of trying to pass major pieces of legislation."
He added: "We think a confrontation of this sort is neither constructive, nor necessary. As I said, we maintain our position of accommodation toward the House of Representatives.
"But make no mistake, based on legal precedent this is something that the drafters of this particular referral know has very little chance of going anywhere."
The latest development follows over six months of Democrat investigations which has seen thousands of documents shipped to the hill and sieved through.