executive privilege news stories on Newser

As With Bush, Obama Won't Release WH Visitors List

Kevin Spak — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:27:31 CDT

Despite President Obama’s promise of transparency, the administration is blocking requests for the White House visitors list, MSNBC reports, defying two federal court rulings that the lists are public record. In addition to denying MSNBC’s request for a list of all visitors since Jan. 20, the Secret Service turned down...

New Obama Plan Aims to Control Exec Pay

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:51:40 CDT

The White House will roll out a plan next week to oversee executive pay and more deeply regulate Wall Street, the New York Times reports. Officials are still debating the details, but under the proposal, the Fed will supervise compensation at financial firms, banks, and other companies—even ones that...

Obama Could Expose Secrets of the Bush Years

Gabriel Winant — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:19:00 CST

Good government groups spent years suing and lobbying to expose the Bush administration’s secrets. Will President Obama spill the beans on his predecessor? Politico outlines major secrets Obama can choose to air or keep: US attorney firings: Claiming executive privilege, Karl Rove refused to testify. But Rove has been re-subpoenaed,...

Investigate Bush: Conyers

Matt Cantor — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:29:02 CST

As the country moves forward, we can’t afford to repeat the mistakes of the past: it’s time to review the abuses of the Bush administration, writes Michigan congressman John Conyers, Jr. in the Washington Post . Congress must keep pushing for “stonewalled” Bush documents; it should create an independent probe of...

Bush Could Block Probes Even After He Steps Down

Rob Quinn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:34:31 CST

President Bush may be able to maintain his executive privilege to block investigations even after he leaves office, the New York Times reports. Harry Truman successfully claimed he had the right not to testify in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, and Richard Nixon later used Truman's case...

Bush Aides Must Testify: Judge

Nick McMaster — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:36:17 CDT

Turning aside White House arguments that top aides are protected from subpoenas by executive privilege, a judge ruled today that Harriet Miers must testify before a congressional committee on the firings of nine federal prosecutors, the Washington Post reports. Miers and fellow aide Joshua Bolten can, however, invoke executive privilege...

'Creative' Bush Order Shields Cheney from Plame Probe

Rob Quinn — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:07:37 CDT

President Bush has invoked an unprecedented executive privilege claim to bar FBI interviews with Dick Cheney from a congressional committee probing the leak that exposed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, Newsweek reports. The Bush order argues that turning over the records of Cheney's grilling concerning the scandal would violate...

Separation of Powers? Leave Prez's BlackBerry Out of It

Paul Stinson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:28:45 CDT

The 44th president will almost certainly kick off his term by quitting email cold turkey, Jamie Sneider writes in the Weekly Standard . With executive-branch communication subject to public-disclosure law, President Bush hasn't send a single message, the former White House aide says—a coping mechanism that "fails to strike the...

Showdown Looms Over Cheney Staffer

Peter Fearon — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:13:22 CDT

Whether a key Dick Cheney aide can be forced to testify is at the heart of a pending blow-up between Congress and the White House over a probe into interrogation techniques, Reuters reports. The House Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington—but the vice president...