Karl Better Keep Running-More Evidence-'Rove's Job In WH Was OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE'

kpete

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Fri Jul-11-08 12:41 PM
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Karl Better Keep Running-More Evidence-'Rove's Job In WH Was OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE'

Edited on Fri Jul-11-08 12:57 PM by kpete

Karl Better Keep Running-More Evidence-'Rove's Job In WH Was OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE'

The Significance of the “Official Duties” Claim
By: emptywheel Friday July 11, 2008 7:54 am

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Rove conducted those actions to make sure that Don Siegelman would not run for Governor of Alabama.
http://static1.firedoglake.com/28/files//2008/07/jillsimpsoninterviewwithexhibits.pdf
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Then there's the other problem. On Wednesday, the White House Counsel wrote a letter to Congress claiming those activities were within Rove's official duties as Senior Advisor to the President.

We have been further advised that because Mr. Rove was an immediate presidential adviser and because the Committee seeks to question him regarding matters that arose during his tenure and relate to his official duties in that capacity, Mr. Rove is not required to appear in response to the Committee's subpoena. Accordingly, the President has directed him not to do so.

According to Fred Fielding, Karl Rove's "official duties" as Senior Advisor to the President included channeling political opposition research on a political figure from Republican operatives to the Department of Justice so as to make sure that political figure would not run for office again. In addition, Fielding is claiming that Bush (or someone else with the authority to decide what Rove's "official duties" were) decided the appropriate person to tell DOJ officials how to allocate resources was the head of the Office of Political Affairs. Further, Fielding is suggesting that it was in Rove's "official duties" to make such resource allocation decisions with the goal of making sure particular political figures did not run for office again.

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All that stuff might well have been perfectly legal, until Fred Fielding claimed that Rove was doing them in the course of his "official duties." Once Fielding claimed they were part of Rove's "official duties," though, they became crystal clear violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of government resources for political ends. Fred Fielding just proved the Hatch Act argument we've been trying to make for over a year--all with that tidy little assertion that Rove's actions in the Siegelman affair were part of his "official duties."

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Fred Fielding just asserted--presumably with the approval of Bush or someone else with the authority to declare what Rove's "official duties" were--

that it was Karl Rove's job when he was in the White House to obstruct criminal investigations.

Now, we've known that this Administration has been in the business of obstructing investigations for some time. But up until Wednesday, no one ever claimed that the Administration believed such obstruction fell within its official duties. Glad to see Fred Fielding clear that up.

more plus links at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/07/11/the-significance-of-the-official-duties-claim/#more-2413
http://static1.firedoglake.com/28/files//2008/07/jillsimpsoninterviewwithexhibits.pdf