http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/13/us....neys.subpoenas/
CNN

White House officials subpoenaed in U.S. attorneys probe
POSTED: 12:46 p.m. EDT, June 13, 2007

• Former White House political director subpoenaed in U.S. attorneys probe
• Subpoena coming for former White House counsel
• Committees will also subpoena documents from White House

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Subpoenas are being issued to two former White House officials, the first to be subpoenaed in the fired U.S. attorneys investigation.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday issued a subpoena to Sara Taylor, former White House political director. About the same time, it was announced that the House Judiciary Committee will issue a subpoena in the same case to former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

Both committees say they will also subpoena documents from the White House, also a first in the investigation.

The committees have issued subpoenas for officials and documents from the Justice Department. The committees are investigating whether the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year were politically motivated and whether the White House was involved.

Taylor resigned from her White House job a couple of weeks ago. Miers resigned her White House post in January. President Bush has nominated Miers to serve on the Supreme Court but later withdrew her nomination. A day earlier, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that the last batch of e-mails provided to investigators by the Justice Department, "shows again that there was no wrongdoing in the replacement of U.S. attorneys."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been authorized to subpoena several current and former White House officials including Taylor, Miers and Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser.

Two Democratic congressional sources say they decided not to subpoena Rove because they are building their case by talking to and gathering information from lower level witnesses and officials, before they get to the more senior, more important witnesses.

"We want to build up and get documents to have basis to ask questions of Rove," one of the sources said. "It's the way you do it in any investigation."

Having said that, the source said the reality is that this will end up in a constitutional showdown and they will never get a chance to talk to any of the White House witnesses.

A White House statement issued Wednesday said: "We are aware of the Judiciary committees' plans to issue subpoenas. We will respond appropriately. The committees can easily obtain the facts they want without a confrontation by simply accepting our offer for documents and interviews. But it's clear that Senator Leahy and Rep. Conyers are more interested in drama than facts."

Leahy had warned the White House that subpoenas would be issued if it did not fully cooperate with the Senate effort to provide the desired information. He said that earlier efforts to get information from the White House had been ignored.

The Justice Department has issued no comment.

One communication from Taylor, made public Tuesday, described as "lazy" a U.S. attorney who was removed from his post in Arkansas to make room for a candidate with ties to Rove.

"It must be terribly frustrating to Chairman [John] Conyers [D-Michigan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee] and Chairman Leahy that more documents come out and still again there's no evidence of any wrongdoing," Fratto said.

"Instead what you see is Harriet Miers, the general counsel at the time, communicating with Kyle Sampson. You see a commitment with using the confirmation process ... concern for the public reputation of U.S. attorneys.

"The bottom line -- there's no news in these e-mails. I know Conyers and Leahy say this shows more White House involvement in the process than was known. No, it doesn't. It doesn't show any more than we've talked about extensively.

"If you're talking about presidential appointees, it's perfectly natural that staff be involved in those discussions. This is more proof there was no wrongdoing in the effort to replace those U.S. attorneys."

In a February 16 e-mail message, Taylor wrote then-Attorney General Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson objecting to the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

McNulty told a Senate panel that U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Arkansas, had been removed only because of political considerations, and not for any performance-related issues.

McNulty said he understood Miers, then White House counsel, had recommended as a replacement for Cummins a candidate named Tim Griffin because the administration wanted to give another lawyer an opportunity to serve. Griffin had worked for Rove and for the Republican National Committee but also had military prosecutorial experience.

"Why would McNulty say this?" Taylor inquired in the e-mail. "McNulty refuses to say Bud is lazy -- which is why we got rid of him in the first place."

Sampson gave a noncommittal answer, saying he looked forward to discussing the matter further.

Sampson was the key department official in charge of deciding which U.S. attorneys should be dismissed, and he was the main liaison with the White House over the process. He resigned when the controversy became public.

According to Leahy, "These documents, which should have been released by the department long ago, provide further evidence that White House officials like former Political Director Sara Taylor were deeply involved in the mass firings of well-performing prosecutors. We need an end to the White House stonewalling of our investigations so we can learn the truth."