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US attorney-general refuses to pass on contempt citations

US Attorney-General Michael Mukasey is refusing to refer to the federal grand jury contempt citations issued by the House of Representatives against two of President George W. Bush's aides. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers have committed no crime.

As promised, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court.

"The House shall do so promptly," Pelosi said on Friday shortly after Mukasey informed her of his decision.

Mukasey said Bolten and Miers were right in ignoring subpoenas to provide Congress with White House documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

"The department will not bring the congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers," Mukasey wrote Pelosi.

Pelosi shot back that the aides can expect a lawsuit.

"The American people demand that we uphold the law," Pelosi said. "As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances, and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that."

The House suit would have a political purpose, too. Democrats have urged that the filing occur swiftly so that a judge might rule before the November elections, when all 435 House seats and a 33 of the 100 in the Senate are up for grabs. Criticism of Bush's use of executive power is a key tenet of the Democrats' platform, from the presidential race on down.

The House voted two weeks ago to cite Bolten and Miers for contempt of Congress and seek a grand jury investigation. Most of Bush's fellow Republicans boycotted the vote.

Pelosi requested the grand jury investigation on Thursday and gave Mukasey a week to reply. She said the House would file a civil suit seeking enforcement of the contempt citations if federal prosecutors declined to seek misdemeanor charges against Bolten and Miers. The plaintiffs would be the entire Judiciary Committee, who would be represented by the House's lawyers, according to Pelosi's aides and the committee's chairman, John Conyers.

Mukasey took only a day to get back to her. But he earlier had joined his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, in telling lawmakers they would refuse to refer any contempt citations to prosecutors because Bolten and Miers were acting on Bush's instruction.

Democrats say Bush's instructions to Miers and Bolten to ignore the House Judiciary Committee's subpoenas were an abuse of power and an effort to block an effort to find out whether the White House directed the firing of nine US attorneys in 2006 for political reasons.

Republicans walked out of the House vote on the contempt citations in protest. The 223 to 32 approval on Feb. 14 was the first of its type in 25 years. The White House pointed out that it was the first time that such action had been taken against top officials who had been instructed by the president to remain silent to preserve executive privilege.
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