WH breaks new ground; discussions with lobbyists covered by Executive Privilege
Chairman Waxman on White House Withholding of Hundreds of Abramoff Documents
October 31st, 2007 by Jesse Lee
from The Gavel
Today Chairman Henry Waxman of the Oversight Committee wrote to White House Counsel Fred Fielding asking him to turn over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that are being withheld because they involve internal White House deliberations.
Full text of the letter:
Dear Mr. Fielding:
The White House is withholding hundreds of pages of documents about the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the grounds that these documents involve internal White House deliberations. Unless the President is prepared to assert executive privilege over these documents, they should be turned over to the Oversight Committee without further delay.
When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January 2006, White House officials stated emphatically that Mr. Abramoff was a virtual stranger to the White House. President Bush said, “I don’t know him.” White House spokesman Scott McClellan asserted that “there were only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended, then a few staff-level meetings on top of that.” Through a spokesperson, Karl Rove, then Senior Advisor to the President, said, “Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. … Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance.” Ken Mehlman, the former Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, said: “Well, Abramoff is someone who we don’t know a lot about. … We know what we read in the paper.”
The Committee’s subsequent review of thousands of documents obtained from Mr. Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig, raised questions about these White House statements. According to the Greenberg Traurig documents, which were summarized in a bipartisan staff report released last year, Mr. Abramoff and his associates had hundreds of lobbying contacts with White House officials, billed clients more than $24,000 for meals and drinks with White House officials, and provided White House officials with high-priced tickets to sporting and entertainment events. The documents also described a series of actions by White House officials that benefited Mr. Abramoff and his clients, as well as requests from Mr. Abramoff that White House officials did not act upon.
(Continued here.)
October 31st, 2007 by Jesse Lee
from The Gavel
Today Chairman Henry Waxman of the Oversight Committee wrote to White House Counsel Fred Fielding asking him to turn over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that are being withheld because they involve internal White House deliberations.
Full text of the letter:
Dear Mr. Fielding:
The White House is withholding hundreds of pages of documents about the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the grounds that these documents involve internal White House deliberations. Unless the President is prepared to assert executive privilege over these documents, they should be turned over to the Oversight Committee without further delay.
When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January 2006, White House officials stated emphatically that Mr. Abramoff was a virtual stranger to the White House. President Bush said, “I don’t know him.” White House spokesman Scott McClellan asserted that “there were only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended, then a few staff-level meetings on top of that.” Through a spokesperson, Karl Rove, then Senior Advisor to the President, said, “Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. … Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance.” Ken Mehlman, the former Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, said: “Well, Abramoff is someone who we don’t know a lot about. … We know what we read in the paper.”
The Committee’s subsequent review of thousands of documents obtained from Mr. Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig, raised questions about these White House statements. According to the Greenberg Traurig documents, which were summarized in a bipartisan staff report released last year, Mr. Abramoff and his associates had hundreds of lobbying contacts with White House officials, billed clients more than $24,000 for meals and drinks with White House officials, and provided White House officials with high-priced tickets to sporting and entertainment events. The documents also described a series of actions by White House officials that benefited Mr. Abramoff and his clients, as well as requests from Mr. Abramoff that White House officials did not act upon.
(Continued here.)
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