John Dean: To hold Rove accountable, Obama's DOJ must enforce contempt statute that Mukasey blew off

[seafan]

John Dean writes:

February 6, 2009

.....

Rove's strategy is becoming increasingly apparent: He is cooperating with the Special Counsel's investigation because she has convened a grand jury. Rove and his lawyer know that White House aides are not immune from a grand jury subpoena. After all, Rove lost that same battle during the investigation of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA agent.

.....

On one hand, Rove doubtless understands that it is remarkably easy to obstruct justice when a grand jury is involved, so he is cooperating with the Special Counsel investigators, even before testifying before the grand jury, to minimize his risk. On the other hand, he and his attorney appear ready to stonewall Congress, to openly obstruct any and all Congressional inquiries, because the law is unclear. The Bush Justice Department refused to enforce the statute requiring it to take persons held in contempt of Congress before a grand jury. As a result, Congress was forced to use civil lawsuits to enforce its subpoena powers, instead of the criminal statute that has long been in the federal code.

In addition, as grand jury testimony is secret, Rove must be well-aware that his confessions of what he may have done regarding the firing of U.S. Attorneys will never be known outside the grand jury room – unless he is prosecuted. ..... So clearly, Rove's strategy is to tell the grand jury what it wants to hear in secret, and to hope that will be the end of the matter.
From Rove's point of view, such a strategy makes sense: His behavior in the firings very likely does not place him in criminal jeopardy, although if the public or Congress were to learn that he played a significant role, they would likely be deeply outraged – not only due to the behavior itself, but because such revelations would expose his prior claim of non-participation as a lie.

.....

Rove will be able to pull this strategy off if the Obama Justice Department refuses to enforce the http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=2&sec=192">Congressional criminal contempt statute, like the Bush and Reagan Administrations before it. This appears to be the bet that Rove and his lawyer have placed, initially at least. If the Justice Department chooses this course, that would force Congress to use civil litigation, and the Bush Administration's White House Counsel Fred Fielding has given Rove the wherewithal to litigate for years on the civil side.

.....

If the Obama Justice Department forces Congress to proceed civilly to enforce its subpoenas, then the House Judiciary Committee will have to find Rove in contempt for claiming absolute immunity; the entire House will have to vote on it; and the committee will have file a lawsuit. In turn, the lawsuit will go from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals for the District, to the U.S. Supreme Court – where Rove will likely lose, and thus be forced to appear before the committee. However, when Rove appears, he will invoke “executive privilege.” This issue, in turn, will have to be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court – where Rove will likely lose again. When called before the committee after that, he will no doubt take the Firth Amendment, an assertion that will also have to be litigated. In short, this could go on for years.

Who will pay for all this? The House Judiciary Committee and the House will use its appropriated funds – taxpayer money. It is also possible that the Justice Department would be required to pay for the Rove/Bush effort to test the extent of presidential privilege, although it would be outrageous if that were the case. Nixon was forced to pay for all of his own legal expenses after leaving office, and litigating the rights to his tapes and papers. But times have changed, so it is not completely clear whether that precedent might cover Rove too – especially retrospectively, if Rove were found to have lied all along in claiming his lack of involvement in the U.S. Attorney firings, or if his legal claims were deemed specious.


The bottom line, however, is this: Unless the Obama Justice Department says the criminal code sections regarding contempt of Congress will be honored and applied, no one should expect to hear anything publicly from Rove under oath anytime soon, if ever.

Attorney General Eric Holder, what say you?

[bdamomma]

1. we need to hold these thugs accountable for their actions

especially that stupid Cheney, he is still up to no good.

[omega minimo]

2. 3 and a

:kick:

[malaise]

3. TIme to lock up Rove

and throw away the key.