Justice Department Asks Court To Delay Subpoena Ruling Again

August 19, 2008 2:08 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Justice Department filed papers on Monday to ask the court again to delay its ruling that top White House aides are not protected by immunity from congressional oversight.

U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled on July 31 that presidential chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers were not immune from congressional subpoenas. "Presidential autonomy, such as it is, cannot mean that the executive's actions are totally insulated from scrutiny by Congress. That would eviscerate Congress's historical oversight function," he said in his 93-page decision.

The Justice Department asked Bates a week later to stay his ruling until after they appeal the case.

The House voted in February to file contempt resolutions against Miers and Bolten. Both officials cited executive privilege and refused to comply with a subpoena from Democrats to testify and provide documents relating to the allegedly politically-motivated dismissals of nine federal attorneys in 2006.

The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit a month later in the U.S. District Court in Washington asking the court to enforce the subpoenas, the first suit of its kind from a chamber of Congress against the executive branch. The panel is now in talks with the Justice Department about how to enforce the subpoenas.

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has decried the department's request for a stay, saying "The Bush-Cheney administration continues to defy our validly issued congressional subpoenas."

Bolten had also been charged by the Senate Judiciary panel with contempt along with former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove last year for failing to follow a subpoena a related inquiry.