In a vivid display of their new power, Democrats across Capitol Hill on Wednesday approved a flurry of subpoenas to fuel a series of investigations of the administration of US President George W. Bush.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued three subpoenas in quick order.
One was to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to answer questions about the administration's prewar claims about Iraq's weapons programs and two were to the Republican National Committee and its chairman, Robert Duncan, to be questioned about whether the party's e-mail system was used by Bush officials to conceal some of their actions.
PHOTO: EPA
The Senate Judiciary Committee authorized but did not issue a subpoena for Sara Taylor, the deputy to Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser. The committee wants to question Taylor about the White House role in the dismissal of eight US attorneys.
In what could be a significant development in the investigation of those dismissals, the House Judiciary Committee moved toward granting a form of immunity from prosecution to Monica Goodling, who was a senior aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales until her recent resignation.
Goodling, who was deeply involved in the dismissals, has invoked her constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment to decline to give testimony that might be self-incriminating.
PHOTO: EPA
But a grant of immunity could allow the committee to force Goodling to answer questions about just how involved the White House, and particularly its political office, was in choosing which prosecutors should be dismissed and whether the decisions were based primarily on a desire to help Republican causes or on performance shortcomings of the prosecutors, as Justice Department officials have said.
As the House Oversight Committee voted along party lines to approve the subpoenas, the atmosphere in the hearing room was rich with themes of retribution and settling scores.
Republicans said the Democrats were using their new majority to support "fishing expeditions" and "witch hunts" solely to embarrass Bush.
PHOTO: AFP
Representative Henry Waxman of California, the recently installed committee chairman, savored his new status as he turned aside Republican efforts to quash the subpoenas or limit them.
Reflecting on the years he spent in minority status, Waxman said that when Republicans controlled the oversight committee during Bill Clinton's presidency, more than 1,000 subpoenas were issued to the executive branch.
"When President Bush took office, I saw the other extreme," he said.
The Republicans who controlled the committee issued only four subpoenas in six years to executive agencies, Waxman said, and none directly to the Bush White House.
Congress' authority includes conducting oversight of the executive branch, which is separate from its better-known function of enacting legislation.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number