Hello Subpoena Power...
Attached please find a subpoena compelling the Department by May 15 to produce any
and all emails and attachments to emails to, from, or copied to Karl Rove related to the
Committee's investigation into the preservation of prosecutorial independence and the
Department of Justice's politicization of the hiring and firing and decision-making of
United States Attorneys, from any (1) White House account, (2) Republican National
Committee account, or (3) other account, in the possession, custody or control of the
Department of Justice. This subpoena includes any such emails that were obtained by
Mr. Fitzgerald as part of the Plame investigation.
Update 2: Direct Link to the Subpoena (PDF)
This WILL get interesting because when you go Rove, you go deep, and when you go Deep, this is for all the marbles. Undoubtly, this will never be responded too; no way they'll give up any Rove Emails, even it's from karl.rove@yahoo.com...
"I continue to hope that the Department will cooperate with the Committee’s investigation, but it is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the Committee’s inquiry have not been produced"
"Indeed, despite multiple requests for the Department to produce documents voluntarily related to the Committee’s investigation into the mass firings of U.S. Attorneys and politicization at the Department, the Department’s production of documents has been selective and incomplete... Many documents have been withheld or redacted without any legal basis being set forth."
That sounds like language leading to public/media accussations at least of "obstruction of Justice"... if not something with more teeth.
I can't see Rove or the WH allowing anything from the White House Servers being handed over, but the issue of RNC emails etc is now pushed way down the field. Keep in mind this subpeona is issued to the DOJ and not the White House or Rove himself, and emails from the RNC to the DOJ would have no real standing in Executive Privledge (at least that's how I understand it in the purest of senses... feel free to debate/correct me on this). It's a good move in my opinion, smart tactic. Point to Leahy...
Update Via Keith-O:
Jonathan Turley feels that
"Leahy is unstopable because of the mistakes this whitehouse has made and these alligations. There is a misconception that Executive Priveldge is an absolute protection for the whitehouse. It is Not.... It can be overcome from a compelling interest in Congress. Leahy is now investigating potential crimes. He has statements which have been made to Congress which appear quite clearly to be false. He's being very smart. He's asking for emails that go to Justice Department Officials. He's entitled to those emails because they deadended in the Justice Department which falls under his jurisdiction. It's a smart move, and if those emails show any evidence of crime, then he's going to be a bull dozer and he's going to go straight after the whitehouse!
Very Interesting Commentary being that this would be the exact same Title 5 violation at the least which they are trying to tie around Monica Goodling's neck this very moment. Doing what they did here is infact Illegal and the precident to investigate Monica could lead back to Rove, if the evidence is infact there... We'll see
UPDATE 3: The Text of the Intro sheds a little backstory for interested parties:
At the hearing last Thursday and again in a letter dated April 25, 2007, I asked you
whether you would provide Karl Rove's e-mails in the possession of the Justice
Department to the Committee without a subpoena. His lawyer stated publicly that these
emails, many of which have been reported "lost", were turned over to U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the leak of the identity of a covert CIA
officer by officials in the Administration that led to the conviction of 1. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby. You responded at the hearing that you did not know but would check and get
back to me. I have not heard back from you since in response to my question or the
letter.
Also, I do think that this was prompted by yesterday's Memo Relevation:
I continue to hope that the Department will cooperate with the Committee's investigation, but it is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the Committee's inquiry
have not been produced, such as a confidential order revealed yesterday by the press that
you issued in March 2006 delegating to two of your aides, former Chief of Staff D. Kyle
Sampson and former White House Liaison Monica Goodling, authority over the hiring
and firing of most political employees of the Justice Department.