Karl Rove Deposition Hearing Still On for Monday
February 19th, 2009Investigative Reporter Alleges Cover-Up in Obama White House Delay
by Glynn Wilson
A staff member for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said today that the deposition hearing scheduled for Monday, Feb. 23, for Karl Rove, the infamous former political adviser to former President George W. Bush, “is still on at this point.”
The Obama administration had sought a two week delay to weigh in on whether former Bush White House officials must testify before Congress about the politics involved in the firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys across the country, according a recent report by the McClatchy newspaper bureau in Washington, D.C., as well as the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, according to other sources.
The request came after Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, asked the Obama White House and the Justice Department under the new Attorney General Eric Holder to referee his clash with the House of Representatives over Bush’s claim of “executive privilege.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued a subpoena requiring Rove to appear Monday to testify about the firings and other allegations that the Bush White House let politics interfere with the operations of the Justice Department.
Michael Hertz, the acting assistant attorney general, said in a court brief that negotiations were ongoing.
“The inauguration of a new president has altered the dynamics of this case and created new opportunities for compromise rather than litigation,” Hertz wrote in the brief. “At the same time, there is now an additional interested party — the former president — whose views should be considered.”
Rove refused to appear on Feb. 2 in response to a Judiciary Committee subpoena, claiming that even former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress, according Conyers’ release. That “absolute immunity” position was supported by then-President Bush, but it has been rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates and President Obama has previously dismissed the claim as “completely misguided,” he said.
“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way,” Conyers said. Noting that the change in administration may impact the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove in this long-running dispute, Mr. Conyers added: “Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it’s time for him to talk.”
The staff member contacted today did not know if there was still a chance the deposition will be delayed Monday. No details are being released about the ongoing negotiations.
A PDF copy of the subpoena is linked here.
To catch up with other documents in the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into how the Bush administration turned the justice system into a White House political operation, this page on the committee’s Web site has a number of important links.
Cover-Up?
Meanwhile, investigative reporter Wayne Madsen released a story on his proprietary Website Feb. 17 alleging that the move to seek a compromise amounts to a “cover-up” by the Obama White House and White House Counsel Greg Craig — who for a time represented Karl Rove and is a friend of Siegelman — for “assisting in a cover-up of a major campaign financial scandal from the 2002 Alabama Republican primary and general election.”
The cover-up is allegedly of a July, 2002 Air Force One “political junket” from Washington, D.C. to Birmingham, Alabama, a fund raising trip where Bush raised $4 million for Alabama Governor Bob Riley in his race against the incumbent Democrat, Governor Don Siegelman.





