Happy Warrantless Surveillance Subpoena DayOn Friday, the White House requested a second extension to the deadline to comply with subpoenas issued about the origins of the warrantless surveillance program. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) response? “The deadline is 2:30,” says Leahy spokeswoman Erica Chabot.
White House counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to the committee Friday that the White House needed until after Labor Day to cull its files for information pertinent to the legal justifications for the surveillance program — and, in any event, practically all of it falls under executive privilege.
The original compliance deadline was July 18, but the committee and the White House agreed to an extension after Fielding and chief of staff Josh Bolten called Leahy to say that “thorough collection and review of responsive documents” would take until around August 1. After another week lapsed beyond that, on August 8, Leahy told the White House that August 20 — today — is the final deadline.
And that’s not going to lapse, says Chabot. Leahy flew into Washington earlier this morning, and at 2:30 p.m. will make his way to the judiciary committee’s hearing room in room 226 of the Dirksen building for some further response. Whether the White House turns over the documents, reiterates its request for more time, or formally claims executive privilege to contest the subpoena, “we’ll have to wait and see,” she says. Leahy has not heard anything from the White House since the Friday letter from Fielding.
The White House’s refusal to disclose the legal underpinnings for its constellation of post-9/11 warrantless surveillance activities became an issue in the revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence wanted the administration to explain why, from fall 2001 to January 2007, it considered FISA an overly restrictive law for the purposes of eavesdropping on terrorism communications before it negotiated an overhaul of the 29-year-old law. The administration declined any such disclosure, and talks on a new bill stalled until the end of the Congressional session, when the Democratic-led Congress acceded to a dramatic expansion of surveillance authority.
This afternoon, the next steps for all sides should be clearer — particularly whether, in the event of noncompliance, Leahy will seek to have the committee consider members of the administration formally in contempt of Congress.
The subpoena was originally issued June 27th to the White House Office, the Office of the Vice President, the National Security Council, and the Department of Justice.
Update: Leahy has now scheduled a press conference for 2:30 in the hearing room.
