House Judiciary: We “Insist” Miers Comply With Subpoena

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (D-MI) warned Harriet Miers’ attorney today that the former White House counsel will risk contempt proceedings unless she complies with a committee-issued subpoena for testimony.

Miers was supposed to testify before a Judiciary subcommittee yesterday on the US attorney firings, but she did not appear after a White House attorney instructed her to stay home. The White House claims that executive privilege cloaks Miers from testifying.

Chair of the sub-committee, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) disagreed with that assertion, and ruled yesterday that the executive privilege claim wasn’t properly asserted anyway.

Sanchez wrote:

In previous cases, when a private party such as Ms. Miers has been subpoenaed and the Executive Branch has objected on privilege grounds, the private party has respected the subpoena and the Executive Branch has obliged to go to court to seed to prevent compliance with the subpoena.

We have not even received a statement form the President himself asserting privilege, even though Chairman Conyers has asked for one. The Courts have stated that a personal assertion of executive privilege by the President is legally required for the privilege claim to be valid.

Even if privilege were properly asserted, Sanchez argued, Miers should still have appeared before the committee, although Sanchez doesn’t believe Miers’ testimony would fall under the privilege shield anyway.