Waxman schedules contempt vote against Mukasey for ignoring Plamegate subpoena

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ignored a subpoena issued June 16 by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asking for documents relevant to its Valerie Plame leak investigation, including FBI interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Committee Chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent Mukasey a letter July 8 informing him that the Committee would vote July 16 on whether or not Mukasey will be found in contempt of Congress.

Waxman said, in order to accommodate Mukasey's assertion of "core Executive Branch confidentiality interests and fundamental separation of powers principles," the Committee would no longer seek President Bush's interview. However, Vice President Cheney's must be produced. Libby had told the FBI it was "possible" Cheney instructed him to inform members of the press about Plame's identity.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Scooter Libby trial, responded to the Committee's requests for documents and told Waxman he knew of no agreement that would prevent the interviews from being shared with the Committee:

I can advise you that as to any interviews of either the President or Vice President not protected by the rules of grand jury secrecy, there were no "agreements, conditions and understandings between the Office of Special Counselor the Federal Bureau of Investigation" and either the President or Vice President "regarding the conduct and use of the interview or interviews."

The Committee's renewed investigation comes after Libby's FBI interview and Scott McClellan's tell-all book. As Waxman wrote to Mukasey on June 3, the leak allegations "cannot be responsibly investigated without access to the Vice President's FBI interview."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

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