Time for Congress to Charge Rove, Miers and Bolten with "Inherent Contempt"

Based on his behavior, Pres. Bush must be hiding something really nefarious. He has forbidden his aides — including former legal counsel Harriet Miers, current Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and now his former White House Political Director, Karl Rove — from even showing up to testify. The Senate Judiciary Committee has now subpoenaed all three of these White House aides about the firing for political reasons of U.S. attorneys. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has issued subpoena´s for Miers, Bolten, Rove and one of his deputies, Jay Jennings. Leahy said he had tried to get information from Rove about the firing of U.S. attorneys, but that the White House has refused to comply. "I´ve exhausted every avenue, sought the voluntary cooperation of the aides, now including Mr. Rove and J. Scott Jennings, but to no avail."

(Rove, has also been implicated, and is claiming "Executive Privilege", in the on-going controversy regarding Don Siegleman, the previous Democratic Governor of Alabama. This potentially illegal political activity has been presented in a sworn affidavit by Ms. Dana Jill Simpson, a long-time, high-ranking Alabama Republican attorney. The illegal action also apparently occurred while Rove was in his presidential advisor position inside the White House.)

A normal charge of "Contempt of Congress" is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. While historically the bribery of a Senator or Representative was considered "Contempt of Congress". In modern times a person must refuse to comply with a subpoena issued by a Congressional committee or subcommittee - usually seeking to compel either testimony or documents - in order to be considered in "Contempt of Congress."

In most cases, when a Congressional committee asks the US Attorney General (AG) to refer a contempt case to a Grand Jury, it is almost an automatic process that the AG will do just as requested by the legislative branch. In fact, for many decades, even though the Attorney General is personally selected by the President, the Department of Justice had been previously regarded as the most neutral and non-partisan cabinet position department. This legal department always worked tirelessly to assure that even though their leader might have a political connection to the current Executive in office, the department under the AG has had a stellar reputation of providing "blind justice", with no allegiance to any political party. As soon as this President took over the White House, that bi-partisan status began to change.

Today, most of the high-level Justice Department employees that supported a philosophy of having no bias have left the Justice Department. They have since been replaced with mostly pro-Republican, conservative lawyers and supporters and the department is currently, anything but unbiased. (One will notice that many of the justice department Directors today are there in an "acting" position as many of the previous, long-time department heads refused to "fall-in-line" and have moved on to other legal roles outside of the government.)

When the Senate Judiciary Committee initially threatened the White House aides with contempt of Congress, Bush quickly announced that the Justice Department would be directed to ignore the charges. In other words, this is an imperial presidency, and "Emperor Bush" is accountable to no one.

As expected, the current US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, has since denied the Congressional request to refer the matter to a federal Grand Jury. (This was also the position held by the previous US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales.) In Mukasey's earlier letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "The (Justice) Department will not bring the Congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers." (And Karl Rove has now been added to this list.)

Based on this response from the US Attorney General, (Remember, this is a position that officially reports directly to the Office of the President), the legislative branch of the government only has one more option. That option is to change their charge of "Contempt of Congress", to "Inherent Contempt of Congress".

"Inherent Contempt" is a seldom used action by a Congressional body. (In fact, the last time it was cited was in 1934.) Under this process, the procedure of holding a person to an "inherent contempt" charge involves only the chamber or Congressional committee concerned. Following an inherent contempt citation, the individuals cited for inherent contempt are then arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or the Senate. In this case, an officer of the small "Capitol Police Force" would be sent to arrest the cited individuals. These cited persons are then escorted to Washington DC and are held in the small set of holding cells located in the basement of the US Capitol Building. They are then brought to the floor of the House or Senate chamber and required to answer charges by the presiding officer. They are then either found innocent and released from the citation or if found guilty, they are subject to the punishment that the House or Senate may dictate. (Usually either a fine of up to $250,000, and/or imprisonment for up to 5 years for punishment or coercive reasons.)

So assuming Rove, Miers, Bolten and other White House aides are found guilty of inherent contempt, they would not be remanded into the federal justice system, which is overseen by the Department of Justice. Instead, they would be fined and/or jailed in the U.S. Capitol Building under the jurisdiction of the Legislative Branch.

Let's hope the Senate Judiciary Committee at least grows a back-bone and follows-through on bringing these people to justice and makes a statement that no one is above the law, especially the President of the United States. America is supposed to be a "nation of laws".

It's once again, time to prove it.