Miers To Testify Before Congress; Court Rejects White House Delays

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A federal judge has rejected the Justice Department's request to stay a court ruling requiring top presidential aides to testify and provide documents to Congress about allegedly politically-motivated dismissals of nine federal attorneys in 2006.

U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected a motion filed by the department earlier this month asking that his earlier ruling on executive immunity be delayed until an appeal is heard. Bates said last month that presidential chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers were not immune from subpoenas from Congress.

Bolten had been asked by lawmakers to provide documents, and Miers to testify, about the 2006 dismissals. Both officials refused to comply with subpoenas, citing executive privilege.

"Without any supporting judicial precedent whatsoever - and, indeed, in the face of Supreme Court case law that effectively forecloses the basis for the assertion of absolute immunity here - it is difficult to see how the Executive can demonstrate that it has a substantial likelihood of success on appeal, or even that a serious legal question is presented," Bates wrote in his ruling.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), who was in negotiations with White House Counsel Fred Fielding about the subpoenas, said he was "heartened" that the court "recognized... the public interest in this matter."

The ruling "clearly rejects the White House's efforts to run out the clock on the committee's investigation of [the Justice Department's] politicization this Congress," the veteran lawmaker said.