Avoid Bush’s Executive Privilege Claim By Investigating NSA Program As A Crime
June 30th, 2007 | by Dusty | Published in Corruption in Govt, Politics | 5 Comments
From ThinkProgress: (video on their site as well)
Yesterday, after years of White House stonewalling, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to the Bush administration for documents related to the warrantless domestic surveillance program.
Today, during a background discussion with reporters, senior Bush administration officials indicated that they would invoke executive privilege in order to deny the NSA documents to Congress, just as they did this morning concerning subpoenas related to the U.S. attorney scandal. “Our response to [the NSA] subpoenas will be the same as our response was before,” said an anonymous official.
But last night on MSNBC’s Countdown, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley claimed that Congress may be able to “get around the executive privilege in court” by saying “we are investigating a potential crime.” Turley said this was possible because warrantless wiretapping is “a federal crime” that “the president has ordered hundreds of people do.”
As Columbia University law professor Michael Dorf points out, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that, “where the President asserts only a generalized need for confidentiality, [executive privilege] must yield to the interests of the government and defendants in a criminal prosecution.”
Bush is invoking such “a generalized need for confidentiality,” according to a senior administration official this morning:
“This is not a mere exercise relating to a particular event. This is an exercise in an attempt to protect the prerogatives of the president for this president and for future presidents.”
When I saw this on Countdown the other night I thought it was a simply wonderful idea. I am glad that TP posted on it for those that might of missed the show and interview w/Professor Turley.
Tags: Politics, Bush, NSA wiretapping, High Crimes and Misdemeanors
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Big Fella, thanks for the link and the smile. There are definitely some upsides to going...
June 30th, 2007at 3:12 am(#)
wouldn’t it be nice to have some real justice for a change?
June 30th, 2007at 1:04 pm(#)
Oh hell yeah it would..Do we remember what it looks like after 6 plus years of these asshats?
June 30th, 2007at 8:46 pm(#)
I was shocked to read that Bush flatly denied to obey the law in essence. I mean, it’s not as if that in itself is ‘news’, but the ante was put up and this whole thing with Cheney as well.. that is basically an admission of knowing that wrong was committed but hell will have to freeze over before anyone will admit to anything. Never mind the legalities of having to provide NSA documents to Congress.. now if there was a smart Republican running for President, he could set himself apart and regain the trust in the Republican party by demanding the President will hand over those documents.
That said, I don’t really want to see another Republican in office. Hey, that said, I don’t much want a Democrat either even if it might be Obama.. sigh..the trouble of being an Indepent, you’re usually screwed when it comes to federal politics..lol
btw Dusty, your site was recommended to me by Betmo..
Ingrid
July 1st, 2007at 8:39 am(#)
I still get a whiff of it once in a while…mostly just around my living room though. It’s out in the real world that it stinks because you-know-who is around!
July 1st, 2007at 11:57 am(#)
Turley may be stating the law, but face it Bush has constantly ignored the law and everything about it.