Subpoenas in the Cheney-Bush era

Cheney and Bush may have discovered yet another new frontier in secrecy, stonewalling, and Executive privilege: Bush Orders Miers Not to Testify by Laurie Kellman, AP 07/11/07. Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers are both former Executive Branch employees who have been subpoenaed to testify before Congress. Bush "directed" both of these private citizens not to testify. And so far, they are both complying with Dear Leader's "direction". Marty Lederman at the Balkinization blog has some thoughts on this in What Is a Private Citizen to Do (When Caught in the Middle of an Interbranch Dispute)? 07/11/07:

Now, this is odd, to say the least. Let's look more carefully at what's happening here. Taylor and Miers actually are faced with legal "directives" -- subpoenas from congressional committees. And their failure to give testimony responsive to the subpoenas is a crime, by virtue of a duly enacted statute (2 U.S.C. 192). ...

All of which is to say that Taylor and Miers have chosen to commit a federal crime, and to disregard the only legal directives (the subpoena, the federal statute) to which they are in fact subject. (emphasis in original)

I guess all this complying with the law stuff is like, you know, so-ooo pre-9/11. At least for those that Our Leader designates as being exempt. What was the word now-Attorney General Abu Gonzales used for the Geneva Conventions, "quaint"?

Tags: bush, bush administration

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