Henry Waxman to attorney general: You never write, you never call

It has been 22 days since the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena to Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey seeking documents for the panel's investigation into the leak of the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson. And from the Justice Department?

Near silence.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), dashed off a reminder that he is waiting to hear from Mukasey--and that the the committee will meet a week from Wednesday to consider citing him for contempt of Congress.

"I strongly urge you to comply with the duly issued subpoena before then," Waxman advised the attorney general in a new letter dispatched today.

The dispute has been going on for more than a month, and the documents Waxman wants aren't just any pieces of paper on routine interviews: They are FBI interviews of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Waxman said at the start of June that he would seek the transcripts from the FBI's investigation as it sought to find out who was responsible for disclosing the former CIA operative's covert identity.

The committee chairman complained that Mukasey, below, had "consistently refused to provide" the committee with the reports or with unedited versions of FBI interviews with White House staff members.

Mukasey's response to date, according to Waxman's letter:

"We are not prepared to provide or make available any reports of interviews with the  president or vice president from the leak investigation" because of "core executive branch confidentiality interests and fundamental separation of powers principles."

That's good enough to put off a report on the Bush interview, the chairman added. As for the other one, "the report of the FBI interview with Vice President Cheney needs to be produced, however."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Rep. Henry A. Waxman/Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press; Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey/Narang Sangnak / EPA

Comments

[Annie]

We can assume higher order reasoning is a process in which the executive branch engages. Apparently our executive branch, including holdover members from prior administrations, have actively been engaging in activities which support transnational terrorism. Moreover, supporters of this administration have made statements to me indicating that personal vendetta is the way they do business....our business. It is not enough that our national executives have the right to engage in certain actions: they have the overriding responsibility to support and protect the people.

Michael Mukasey made bold statements informing us that transnational terrorism is unsettling national economies with the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars of laundered funds, etc. We cannot fight this sort of terrorism if we engage in such activities ourselves, and we cannot retain investigators, analysts, judges when we allow the executive branch to harm or kill them.

Mr. Mukasey needs to consider and act.