Bush uses executive privilege to protect Mukasey from Plamegate subpoena

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
By Amy Weiss

President Bush asserted executive privilege Tuesday to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from providing transcripts of FBI interviews with Vice President Cheney and other documents pertaining to the leak of CIA Agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had a vote scheduled for Wednesday to hold Mukasey in contempt for refusing to comply with the Committee's subpoena. The Committee initially requested the FBI interviews of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney but then requested only Cheney's as Waxman said it could not fall under executive privilege. When Waxman informed Mukasey of the contempt vote and urged him to comply before the vote took place he said:

The Vice President's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, told the FBI that it is "possible" that the Vice President instructed him to disseminate to the press information about the identity of Ms. Wilson...

The arguments you have raised for withholding the interview report are not tenable.

When the FBI interview with the Vice President was conducted, the Vice President knew that the information in the interview could be made public in a criminal trial and that there were no restrictions on Special Counsel Fitzgerald's use of the interview...

Vice President Cheney's attorneys have consistently maintained that he is not an "entity within the executive branch." Whether this unusual claim is accurate or not, I am aware of no freestanding vice presidential communications privilege, let alone one that covers voluntary and unrestricted conversations with a special counsel investigating wrongdoing.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has confirmed Waxman's statements about the nature of privacy regarding Cheney's interview. Waxman said he still believed Mukasey should be held in contempt and plans on holding a vote after his fellow committee members are briefed on the situation.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT