BUSH ORDERS MIERS NOT TO TESTIFY

THIS SHOULD BE A REASON TO IMPEACH MR. BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM VERY DISGUSTED!!! I'M SICK AND TIERD OF HIM ACTING LIKE GOD AND NOT ACTING FOR THE PEOPLE!!! HE AND CHENEY HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH ENOUGH!!! IT'S TIME TO TAKE BACK OUR NATION FROM THIS ABOVE THE LAW ADMINISTRATION!!!

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago WASHINGTON - President Bush ordered his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to testify Thursday before a House panel investigating U.S. attorney firings.
"Ms. Miers has absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony as to matters occurring while she was a senior adviser to the president," White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Miers' lawyer, George T. Manning.
Manning, in turn, notified committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., that Miers would not show up Thursday to answer questions about the White House role in the firings of eight federal prosecutors over the winter.
Conyers, who had previously said he would consider pursuing criminal contempt citations against anyone who defied his committee' subpoenas, revealed the letters after former White House political director Sara Taylor testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Taylor said she knew of no involvement by the president in the firings of the U.S. attorneys.
She irked senators by refusing to answer many questions from a panel investigating whether the firings were politically motivated. She said she was bound by Bush's position that White House conversations were protected by executive privilege.
Conyers said of Miers, Bush's former White House lawyer, "As a former public official and officer of the court, Ms. Miers should be especially aware of the need to respect legal process, and we expect her to appear before the committee tomorrow as scheduled."
Fielding said the Justice Department had advised the White House that Miers had absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony.
"The president has directed her not to appear at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, July 12, 2007," Fielding wrote.
Across the Capitol a Senate committee spent Wednesday grilling a second reluctant Bush aide about the White House role in the firings.
Unlike Miers, Taylor showed up and haltingly tried to satisfy both the subpoena compelling her testimony and Bush's executive privilege order not to reveal internal White House discussions.
"I did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys," Taylor said under stern questioning by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman. "I did not attend any meetings with the president where that matter was discussed."
When asked more broadly whether Bush was involved in any way in the firings, Taylor said, "I don't have any knowledge that he was."
She quickly found out what Miers might have already known: It's almost impossible to answer some questions but not others without breaching either the subpoena or Bush's executive privilege claim.
"I have not done a great job at that," Taylor said of the predicament at one point. "I have tried."
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said that may not be enough to protect her from a contempt citation.
"There's no way you can come out a winner," said Specter, the panel's senior GOP member and also its former chairman. "You might have been on safer legal ground if you'd said absolutely nothing."
As for the prospects of pursuing a criminal citation for contempt of Congress, Leahy said, "That's a decision yet to be made."

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Obviously the pot is boiling over the firing of attorney matter.

What this is leadiing up to is nothing short of a full-blown Constitutional Crisis.

Some of these witnesses are going to be subject to imprisonment while they think about their position.

Remember Susan MacDougal and Julie Hiatt Steele.

A mind once expanded can never return to its original dimensions.

Anne Hathaway: 1556-1623

The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.

Specter's Warning to the White House

>"There's no way you can come out a winner," said Specter, the panel's senior GOP member and also its former chairman. "You might have been on safer legal ground if you'd said absolutely nothing."

Team Republican: Party first, then country. Nice warning to Miers not to show as subpeoned. And to think that Miers was Bush's pic for the Supreme Court. Good grief! Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "thick as thieves."

This may get the ball rolling, yet.

I hope these are steps taken to hold them accountable
for their actions.

republican priorities

I agree that the republican party comes before country for GOP politicians, but I think corporations are a close second to party.  If we think about it for awhile, country would be lower than third.

Inherent contempt procedures for Miers

do not hold Miers in Contempt of Congress

instead........

use the procedures for "inherent contempt" and have a trial right there in the house, otherwise we will
have to rely on a Bush loyalist in the justice department to proceed. here is information on this procedure

Inherent contempt

Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned.
Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the
House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and
then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons,
imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)

Concerned with the time-consuming nature of a contempt proceeding and the inability to extend punishment
further than the session of the Congress concerned (under Supreme Court rulings), Congress created a
statutory process in 1857. While Congress retains its "inherent contempt" authority and may exercise it at
any time, this inherent contempt process was last used by the Senate in 1934, against the Postmaster-General.
After a one-week trial in the Senate floor (presided by the Vice-President of the United States, acting as
Senate President), the Postmaster-General was found guilty and sentenced to 10 days imprisonment.

The Postmaster General had filed a petition of Habeas Corpus in federal courts to overturn his arrest, but
after litigation, the US Supreme Court ruled that Congress had acted constitutionally, and denied the
petition in the case Jurney v. MacCracken, 294 U.S. 125 (1945). [1]

Welcome to Dem.com, Dave! AND...

thanks for a great strategic comment with details! Way to Go!

As long as Bush can commute jail/prison time, Miers will never sport an orange jumpsuit, though. Still, this will wake up administration that they are not holding all the cards.

actually...

if you look at what happened in 1934, she will go to jail right away, and then the GOP can try to get her out by going to the Supreme Court, and even though there is precident that would keep her in jail, I doubt it would mean much to the right wing dominated court

at least she would don the orange clothing for a day or two

and thanks for the welcome

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