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Conyers Subpoenas Rove

Monday 26 January 2009

by: Susan Crabtree  |  The Hill

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The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Karl Rove. (Photo: Getty Images)

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) subpoenaed former White House senior adviser Karl Rove, a sign that Democrats are not letting go of investigations the Bush administration stonewalled.

    The subpoena requires Rove to testify regarding his role in the Bush administration's politicization of the Justice Department, including the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

    The House Judiciary panel granted Conyers the power to subpoena several White House officials, including Rove, in 2007 after they failed to testify voluntarily before the House and Senate about the U.S. attorney ousting. The White House claimed executive privilege but offered to grant Democrats in the House and Senate private interviews with administration officials, conducted with neither oaths nor transcripts.

    Democrats want Rove to appear at a deposition on Monday, Feb. 2. He has claimed that the executive privilege protections from testifying extend to former presidential advisers, but a federal judge has rejected that argument.

    "I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today's action is an important step along the way," said Conyers.

    Noting that the change in administration may affect the legal arguments available to Rove in this long-running dispute, Conyers added, "Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it's time for him to talk."

    Conyers has released information he believes implicates Rove in the prosecution and conviction of Siegelman on corruption charges for political reasons. Rove has been accused of hatching a plan to prosecute Siegelman because he didn't back down from contesting the 2001 gubernatorial election results that handed the office to Republican Bob Riley.

  

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Comments

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One by one the dominoes will

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 14:49 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
One by one the dominoes will fall.

KarlRove--as anyone

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 14:53 β€” Anonarcmous (not verified)
KarlRove--as anyone else--should be proud of his/her actions and eager to explain.

I hope this is a sign of the

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 15:22 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
I hope this is a sign of the times ahead. the mistake of one going after these republicans in the Nixon administration came home to roost and destroyed the world economy putting the burden upon us and future generations to pay the bill of their plundering the treasury on their way out. I read about he the gang of ten today in the NYT I wrote my Senator, Bingaman, today to tell him that accountability is the keyword of the day. They should hold these Bush Administrators accountable for the crimes against humanity.

There once was a gentleman

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 15:34 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
There once was a gentleman called Mike Connell who was Rove's IT guru and was on track to be called to testify concerning 2004 voter fraud in Ohio; there once was. He's now quite conveniently dead; maybe Conyers can add that to the dung pile. Maybe..

There are two more subpoenas

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 16:47 β€” Mel Smith (not verified)
There are two more subpoenas that need to be issued, Bush-Cheney. Might as well start at the top.

It's good to see Rep.

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 17:00 β€” Michael (not verified)
It's good to see Rep. Conyers actually doing something he said he would do, regarding holding Bush administration officials to account. Few deserve it more than Rove. Let's hope it's not smoke and mirrors. PS. Anonarcmous- Rove "should be proud of" outing an undercover CIA operative?! "Proud" of politicizing the Justice Dept.?!

We can hope that the Domino

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 17:16 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
We can hope that the Domino effect will take hold and bring the whole house of cards down around all their ears, finally. As is said, the hands of justice move exceedingly slow, but they do move. Not all of the witnesses against them will Conveniently die. Karl Rove is the main string to pull and once it starts to unravel, there will be no stopping it. This Bush Bunch may think that 'out of sight , out of mind' would allow them to get off Scot free, but it will not happen that way.

Whether or not Obama has

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 17:17 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Whether or not Obama has chosen to not look backwards, it would be an egregious omission of epic proportions to let these criminals go on their merry way as if what they did had had no impact on the lives of millions and even the life of the planet. He is busy establishing new policies, trying to set a new course, and this is all for the best. But that Conyers is taking care of defending the constitution is equally important. We all are scarred from the Bush regime and need to see justice prevail. They are at best selfish, shortsighted ignoramuses, at worst, heartless and evil and I suspect the latter.

If Rove won't answer the

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 18:41 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
If Rove won't answer the questions, waterboard him! I mean, it's not really torture or anything, right?

Mike Connell was almost

 Tue, 01/27/2009 - 19:36 β€” Another Peasant (not verified)
Mike Connell was almost certainly murdered. As with the "official" story of 9-11, a raft of facts just don't match up. He was an expert pilot, but he ran out of gas. He was an expert pilot, but he couldn't bring the plane down in a glide and land it. He'd run out of gas, yet the plane exploded and burned on impact. The plane exploded and burned, yet an un-named state trooper identified the body on the scene. Can we say "bullshit"? Sure. Connell was set to testify that he set up a computer network before the Ohio vote in 2004, that allowed a man-in-the-middle attack. The vote tally at the Ohio local precincts first went to a Republican-controlled computer in Tennessee, before being sent to the State of Ohio's tabulation computers. The official count was off from the exit polls by a large enough margin, that if it had happened in another country, we would have called their election FRAUDULENT. The reason that Kerry was predicted to beat Bush in Ohio was that HE WAS DOING SO, before Rove's band of merry tricksters subverted the will of The People, and altered the vote, for that un-forseen "surprise" result. Connell's lawyers in the Ohio case against Rove, et al, begged the courts to protect Michael Connell, claiming that Rove had threatened him if he "didn't take the fall". AND ALL CONGRESS CAN GO AFTER ROVE FOR, IS FAILURE TO APPEAR??? I'm writing John Conyers, to remind the good Congressman about those minor crimes that he might want to include on his list of subpoenas, like CONSPIRACY TO MURDER, and TREASON. I advise you all to do the same.

Why the lack of indictments

 Thu, 01/29/2009 - 19:04 β€” Anonymous (not verified)
Why the lack of indictments of the criminal Repugnicans like Rove and Cheney by Fitzgerald (was he threatened? or is it just his own Republican affiliation that caused him to turn all his passion and vehemence against comparatively low level Democrat Blagoyevich rather than follow through on possible treason indictments for Rove et al in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame??) Why has there been no similar passion by Fitzgerald or anyone else with Republican affiliation to indict Cheney (and Halliburton/KBR ) for war profiteering and covering up connections to these companies [cf. Treuehand] while in office?