Truthout: Miers Refuses to Comply, Contempt Front and Center

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24851

Miers Refuses to Comply, Contempt Front and Center
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-07-18 21:50. Congress | Evidence

By Matt Renner, www.truthout.org

Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, said on Tuesday she would not comply with Congressional orders. Congress has issued subpoenas for Miers's testimony and any documents in her possession related to the US attorney purge. Her refusal could lead to criminal proceedings or to detention by Congressional security forces.

Congress issued a subpoena for Miers after negotiations with the White House broke down. The subpoena ordered Miers to attend a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on July 12, which had been scheduled specifically to take her testimony. Miers did not attend the hearing, claiming the President's assertion on executive privilege shielded her from having to testify. With Miers absent, the subcommittee voted to overrule her claim of privilege, the first step on the way to holding Miers in contempt.

In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), Miers's lawyer said President Bush had "specifically directed not to appear, not to produce documents ... and not to provide testimony." The letter stated the Judiciary Committee's "dispute is not with Ms. Miers, but with the executive branch."

In a letter to Miers's lawyer, Conyers set Tuesday as a deadline for Miers to comply with the subpoena or to face the possibility of contempt charges. The House has two avenues for enforcing their subpoenas: criminal contempt proceedings or inherent contempt proceedings. Conyers threatened to use the power of inherent contempt, an authority which permits Congress to order the Sargent at Arms to arrest the offending individual and physically detain them until they comply with the subpoena. This method was popular prior to the 1930s but has not been used in over 70 years.

The inherent contempt power is being considered because criminal contempt proceedings would have to be enforced by the Department of Justice, the very department which Congress is investigating. In fact, the interim US attorney for the Washington DC area, Jeffrey Taylor, was working directly with architects of the US attorney purge before he was appointed to his current position. If Congress attempts to hold Miers in criminal contempt, Taylor would decide whether to convene a grand jury to try Miers.

snip//

Representative Linda Sanchez (D-Ca.), chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee, said of the situation "this Committee respects the importance of executive privilege as a safeguard for internal deliberations on the legitimate creation of policy, but it cannot be used as a blanket protection to avoid Congressional oversight as authorized by the Constitution."

Hold her in contempt already. And if Taylor refuses to convene a GJ can he be held in contempt too?

skanky old bitch...fly her to Iraq and dump her old ass in the Tigris River...

these people need to start doing perp walks. They are criminals and traitors who hold the Constitution and the concept of representative democracy in vast contempt.

Arrest their asses, goddammit. Do something real now, or it's all a dog and pony show.

It's not as though she is an individual who has the power to make independent ethical decisions and act on her own.

She's just a Presidential robot