As The BRAD BLOG reported yesterday would happen today, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Law has today voted to issue subpoenas in the matter of the forced firing of U.S. Attorneys at the Dept. of Justice after pressure from higher-ups.
According to a statement just received by The BRAD BLOG (full statement posted below), the subcommittee voted to issue subpoenas requiring former U.S. Attorneys David C. Iglesias, Carol Lam, H.E. Cummins, III, and John McKay to appear at a hearing next Tuesday.
“The former U.S. Attorneys are alleging very serious charges against the Administration and we need to hear from them,” Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) says in his statement. “We want to hear their stories and we want the Administration to address the charges head on so that we can get to the bottom of this.”
The subpoenas, issued as a “last resort” according to subcommittee Chairwoman, Linda Sà¡nchez (D-CA), are the first to be issued by the Democrats since taking control of Congress.
We must run, so we’ll refer you to the full statement below for more details for the moment…
Washington – House Judiciary Committee John Conyers today issued subpoenas against certain former U.S. Attorneys who were recently fired by the Bush Administration. The subpoenas were authorized by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Law (CAL), chaired by Congresswoman Linda Sà¡nchez.
The subpoenas require former U.S. Attorneys David C. Iglesias, Carol Lam, H.E. Cummins, III, and John McKay to appear before a CAL Subcommittee hearing next week.
“The former U.S. Attorneys are alleging very serious charges against the Administration and we need to hear from them,” Chairman Conyers said. “We want to hear their stories and we want the Administration to address the charges head on so that we can get to the bottom of this.”
“We decided to issue subpoenas only as a last resort,” said Chairwoman Sà¡nchez. “We need to get to the bottom of whether competency in upholding the law is being sacrificed for political ideology.”
Subcommittee members voted this afternoon in a public meeting. The subpoenas will be issued this evening for the U.S. Attorneys to appear before the subcommittee on Tuesday, March 6, at 2:00 pm in Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will consider a bill by Congressman Howard Berman that would reverse a new provision in the USA PATRIOT Act allowing the Attorney General to indefinitely appoint federal prosecutors through the end of the Bush Administration without Senate confirmation.
I hope the subpoena machine is just getting warmed up.
Hoorah! Hoorah! Another nail in the almost-hermetically sealed coffin of this administration! More testimony of wrongdoing – possibly criminal activity by the WH. So what else is new? We’ve accepted an avalanche of misdeeds, lies, and manipulation of the legal system to enable some to be “above the law”. This has never been the hallmark of a great democracy – exception making – and has destroyed ours. Time to Impeach is now! This country doesn’t have two more years of self-destruction, unaccountability, and law-breaking to endure before it is virtually “unrecognizable”!
Well It’s about FUCKING Time ! . . . . somebody did something . . .
so am I to be excited that the quickest way to get from point A (Democracy in Chaos) to point B (restoring order) is a crooked line looking something like this:
Democratic consultants mumbo jumbo talking points:
Nancy Pelosi “Impeachment is off the table”
Conyers subpoenas for judges that were cut loose because that was the one last string keeping any semblance of rule of law in our federal judiciary going.
THERE IS ONLY ONE SUBPOENA that conyers should issue and that is to Dick Cheney and it should be to put him on trial for treason. (impeachment is also required of our congressmen because without showing accountability for war crimes and other gross criminal acts, we tell our children, history and the world that it’s OK to break the rules and if you’re the president or his henchmen, you don’t pay the price).
Bottom line, this behaviour from the senate and house dems is UNACCEPTABLE. I just got back from a Washington State Hearding demanding that the House Of Representatives make their first priority an investigation into bush/cheney that leads to impeachment. Here Here to Senator Olmeig from Washington for doing the will of the Citizens. It’s about time even Conyers makes good on his promises once to impeach and not pretend to join the dems club of hear no evil, see no evil and proceed by pursuing silly little causes like this one rather than the big subpoenas that are 10 X more important and more capable of changing the course of history.
anything else is just a lot of dems putting eggs in the basket of their badly advised consultants and shows the stupidity and arrogance of Pelosi and others to continue to REFUSE To represent the will of the people who have long ago demanded a full end to the war and for the criminals in office to be put before war crimes tribunals.
True Dat. The first order of business should be impeachment, but for all their crimes, not just some. Research 9/11 truth. Without 9/11 they (the neocon/corporatist death cult) would never have launched Iraq and Afghanistan. Both are crimes of the highest order, only surpassed by the crime they comitted through their willful blindness (at best) or express agency (at worst) on 9/11. Everything stems from there and until this Democratic Congress truly investigates 9/11, everything else is displaceent activity, a distraction. Please Brad, urge Mr. Conyers to investigate 9/11!
Good if it is not a diversion.
If the dems do not make a strong, strong attempt … to the point of forcing the republicans to filibuster … on the Iraq budget matters, I will not be voting for any democrat in ’08.
Any blogger here knows I advocated giving them a chance, and if they do not seriously follow the wishes of those who voted them into office, I seriously will not vote for them or republicans. Any of those in those parties in ’08.
Take heed democrats … I am very in tune with the majority and you disregard our view on the Iraq debacle at your political peril!
What were the actual offenses?
The Republican obfuscation has already begun on this one. A New Mexico based political operative is beginning to lay the ground work for another dodge of the truth. Next up I expect to find out David Iglesias is actually a Democratic spy! A more appropriate question for Iglesias would be, “Why did you wait to mention this alleged unethical behavior until it effected you personally?” I suspect the obvious answer is the probable truth. I will be curious to hear his sworn testimony.
Hey, it this that thing called over-site that the Repubs have been avoiding?
Did they really think they could still get away with such fascist actions?
Now if they could look into that stuff about iraq, 9-11, Katrina, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
Great news, if in fact anything is ever DONE about the crimes they will most likely uncover. I’m trying to be positive, but damn, we’ve been committeed to death, crimes exposed, yet the destruction of America and the world takeover continues untouched. The cards may get shuffled, but he’s allowed to continue playing with the same loaded deck…*sigh*…
To Capital Hill: You know what freaking subpoenas the majority – A VERY ANGRY AND FED UP MAJORITY – of Americans want to see!!!!!!!
If the Judiciary Committee finds evidence of White House attempts to obstruct justice that would be all the Congress needs to launch impeachment proceedings!
“Upon taking office, in an unexplained departure from the practice of recent Administrations, Miss Reno suddenly fired all 93 U.S. attorneys. She said the decision had been made in conjunction with the White House. Translation: The President ordered it. Just as the best place to hide a body is on a battlefield, the best way to be rid of one potentially troublesome attorney is to fire all of them. The U.S. attorney in Little Rock was replaced by a Clinton protege.” National Review, Sept 1, 1998 by Robert H. Bork
Can we get subpoena’s for Clinton, Reno and others. Call Rep. John Conyers – D, MI.