The report runs over 350 pages, so I don’t think I can do significant analysis in a single blog post. It’s going to take a few days and a bunch of posts to see how much, if any, new material appears in this document.
One of things that strikes me about this report is how the White House has, insanely, asserted "Executive Privilege" with respect to document requests from an Executive Branch Agency. Executive Privilege is something you assert when you get a request from ANOTHER BRANCH OR LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT.
Eh, sorry. Didn’t mean to raise my voice there, but sometimes the level of stupid — just makes me lose it.
Some of these documents had been previously shared with then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, so whatever goofy privilege they might have been able to assert WAS WAIVED WHEN THEY GAVE THE PAPER TO GONZALES.
Damn, I’m losing my temper again.
Current and former DOJ personnel (except Monica Goodling) appear to have been relatively cooperative and gave interviews and provided materials such as their appointment calendars and emails to the investigators.
Some of the interviewees — I’m looking at you Kyle Sampson — appear to have been caught in a couple/few fibs. Tsk, tsk, tsk. What really strikes me though, is the level and audacity of non cooperation from White House staffers.
One of my favorite excuses? Harriet Miers refused to be interviewed for this report, although acknowledging there was no Executive Privilege issue, because — get this — submitting to this interview might "undermine Mier’s ability to rely on the instructions she received from the White House directing her to refuse to appear for Congressional testimony."
Let that sink in for a minute, "undermine Mier’s ability to rely on instructions.." That is tantamount to admitting that those "instructions" were issued solely to provide her with a shield against testifying.
Froomkin has more.
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The Froomkin link is to an anchor to a gmail mailbox. You should maybe fix?
Fixed, and thank you.
lhp – any ideas as to why this investigation took 12-18 months?
Ooops. Got the Froomkin link via a gmail.
Petulant Shrub speaking now.
Executive Privilege is something you assert when you get a request from ANOTHER BRANCH OR LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT.
Especially ridiculous when you consider that in his testimony as *Attorney General*, he said that he considered himself to be the president’s lawyer.
maybe they should have asserted attorney/client privilege.
Yeah, they interviewed 90 people–and spent time TRYING to interview even more.
They reviewed thouseands of pages of docuemtns.
And it takes a while to write a report this long and this detailed (unless you are Marcy Wheeler)
Well between the post title and the term “running out the clock,” I think you have your answer…
They just make stuff up. And throw lingo around without regard for whether the words mean what they say. Ugh!
Boy. The Friday afternoon news dump is happening on Mondays now. I guess we expect more dumps as the DOW plummets to 5,000 or wherever it comes to nest and lay some more eggs.
You now I may chnage my maind when I have had a chance to grock the report in fullness, but I think running out the clock may have been the best move if they really want the truth to come out. As long as it is an open matter come the new Administration, there is HOPE that something might stillbe done
lol.
so – wrt the White House refusal, evidently there were several parts of “No” that they didn’t understand?
Impeachment anyone?
I too think it is fascinating that this got released on the day that Paulsen said he MUST have a vote
We’re seeing the formation of the Bush legacy before our very eyes.
No there were several parts of “executive privledge” assertion that they–and I–don’t understand.
Probably b/c there is nothing there to be understood b/c it’s just more WH word salad
I’ll have 2, please, with a side of prison terms
Uhh could we reserve some of the ‘compliance techniques’ for the Bush Administration?
Well, if you can’t bury it on a Friday of a long weekend (although the same day as a Presidential debate should have been an option), then burying it on a Monday during a financial melt-down is a viable option…
“submitting to this interview might “undermine Mier’s ability to rely on the instructions she received from the White House directing her to refuse to appear for Congressional testimony.” Wow, that is one mouthful of a sentence. In other words(am I getting this right?)The White House told Miers something that gave her confidence that it was ok for her to refuse to appear for Congressional testimony. Now, what could the WH have told her that made it ok – or made her feel ’safe’? That they’d make it all better? Kiss the booboo? That they’d protect her? And THEN, she refused AGAIN, because giving that interview might what — make her stop believing what the WH had told her? Cut the WH’s reasoning and argument to shreds and that she would not feel ’safe’ or ‘ok’ anymore? That the WH told her that if she talked to anyone that they would not protect her? This sounds like a threat to me. LHP – what would you call this?
in defense of the DOJ (words that I find to be, unbelievably, being typed by my very own fingers), to wait for a day somewhere in the pendency of this administration, on which there *isn’t* some other monstrous clusterfuck competing for attention. *s*
well, I screwed that comment up.
ta hell with it.
Over here!
not only is this the current administration’s style, it is a key part of the republican playbook. this reminds me of reagan’s “signing statements,” which have become a part of presidential practice now, used to influence law and clearly a subversion of the constitution. even when it seems ludicrous, they throw “executive privelege,” out there and hope everyone just assumes it works or is scared off.
I think the phrase you are thinking of is witness tampering–but at the moment it seems somewhat inderact and hard to prove. When more details come out, who knows?
Impeachments and Imprisonments all around!
Step Up To The Bar! On me!!!
Elections in just over a month. No time for impeachments now. We have a White House to win, majorites in both houses to secure and a SCOTUS to protect.
Yep..keep the focus — keep the focus…don’t get distracted by all of this stuff flying around…keep the focus.
obstruction:
R E P U G L I T A RD
repuglitard
what did I win …
Ian a couple of flights upstairs
A chance to vote these asshats out of office.
Please use your prize wisely