-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 9, 2007 2:50:43 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Contempt of Congress -- Should Bush Care?
Contempt of Congress: What Is It?
Monday, July 09, 2007
By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/
2007Jul09/0,4670,ContemptofCongressQampA,00.html
WASHINGTON — Congress and the White House appear headed for a
showdown over President Bush's decision to invoke executive
privilege to deny documents to House and Senate committees and
prevent former aides from testifying about the firing of U.S.
attorneys.
Lawmakers, in turn, have threatened to hold subpoenaed officials in
contempt of Congress.
Here are some questions and answers about the contempt of Congress
process:
Q: What is contempt of Congress, and why would Congress want to use
this power?
A: Congress can hold a person in contempt if that person obstructs
proceedings or an inquiry by a congressional committee. Congress
has used contempt citations for two main reasons: (1) to punish
someone for refusing to testify or refusing to provide documents or
answers, and (2) for bribing or libeling a member of Congress.
Q: Where in the Constitution does it say Congress can hold someone
in contempt for not testifying?
A: It's not in the Constitution. It is an implied power of
Congress, just like executive privilege is an implied power of the
presidency.
Q: Is there any legal underpinning for a contempt of Congress
citation?
(Story continues below)
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A: Yes. The Supreme Court said as early as 1821 that without the
power to hold people in contempt of Congress, the legislative
branch would be "exposed to every indignity and interruption that
rudeness, caprice, or even conspiracy, may mediate against it."
Q: What is the process for holding someone in contempt of Congress?
A: The procedure can start in either the House or the Senate. The
two chambers do not work together on contempt citations. It only
takes one chamber to refer a person to be prosecuted for contempt.
A contempt citation can start with a subcommittee, a full committee
or in the full House or Senate.
If it starts at the committee level and a person refuses to comply
with a committee subpoena, the committee has to vote to move a
criminal contempt citation forward. It takes a majority vote for
the citation to move to the full House or Senate.
Q: What happens next?
A: Once the full House or Senate has a contempt citation, it must
be debated by the full chamber like any other resolution. It is
subject to the same filibuster and procedural rules as any other
House or Senate resolution. It takes a majority vote to be approved.
Once approved, the House speaker or the Senate president pro tem
then turns the matter over to the U.S. attorney for the District of
Columbia, "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the
grand jury for its action," according to the law.
Q: Is the U.S. attorney required to prosecute?
A: Depends on whom you ask. The law says the U.S. attorney "shall"
bring the matter to a grand jury.
However, the House voted 259-105 in 1982 for a contempt citation
against EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch but the Reagan-era Justice
Department refused to prosecute the case.
The Justice Department also sued the House of Representatives,
saying its attempt to force Gorsuch to turn over documents
interfered with the executive branch. The court threw the case out
and urged negotiation between the executive and the legislative
branches. The Justice Department did not appeal the ruling, and the
Reagan administration eventually agreed to turn over the documents.
Q: When was the last time a contempt of Congress citation was
brought to the House or the Senate floor?
A: The last contempt of Congress prosecution was of former
Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle in 1983. The
House voted 413-0 to cite her for contempt of Congress for refusing
to appear before a House committee. Lavelle was later acquitted in
court of the contempt charge, but was convicted of perjury in a
separate trial.
Q: What is the punishment upon conviction for contempt of Congress?
A: Contempt of Congress is a federal misdemeanor, punishable by a
maximum $100,000 fine and a maximum one-year sentence in federal
prison.
Q: Is the contempt of Congress power used often in fights between
the legislative branch and the executive branch?
A: Since 1975, 10 Cabinet level or senior executive officials have
been cited for contempt for failure to produce subpoenaed
documents. The 10 officials are Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
and Commerce Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton in 1975; Health,
Education, and Welfare Secretary Joseph A. Califano, Jr., in 1978;
Energy Secretary Charles Duncan in 1980; Energy Secretary James B.
Edwards in 1981; Interior Secretary James Watt in 1982; EPA
Administrator Anne Gorsuch, known as Anne Gorsuch Burford after a
1983 marriage, and Attorney General William French Smith in 1983;
White House Counsel John M. Quinn in 1996; and Attorney General
Janet Reno in 1998.
The White House and Congress came to negotiated agreements in each
case before criminal proceedings could begin.
Q: Does the president's executive privilege trump Congress'
contempt citation?
A: That's the big question that both sides really don't want
answered. In the past, neither side has been willing to let the
matter go up to the Supreme Court for fear that their side would lose.
If Congress loses, then it would have a hard time investigating
future presidents, Republican and Democrat. If the White House
loses, the current president and future ones can expect numerous
requests from a reinvigorated Congress, whether controlled by the
Democrats or Republicans.
Q: Is there anything the president can do once someone has been
convicted of contempt of Congress?
A: Contempt of Congress is a federal crime like any other. The
sitting president has the authority as chief executive to commute
or pardon anyone of any federal crime.
___
Sources: Congressional Research Service, Senate Judiciary
Committee, Associated Press interviews.
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