GovernmentExecutive.com

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., today subpoenaed the Justice Department for FBI reports of interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney and other documents related to the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's covert status.

The demand for the documents, which were created in an investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, is the latest sign of renewed congressional interest in the Plame outing sparked by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book.

McClellan has said Bush and Cheney encouraged him to defend Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, who was convicted of perjury last year and later received a commutation of his sentence from Bush, even though Cheney may have known Libby leaked the information at his behest.

"It would be a major breach of trust if the vice president personally directed Mr. McClellan to mislead the public," Waxman said this month.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has set a Friday hearing at which McClellan has agreed to testify. Conyers has said McClellan's claim that he was told to vouch for Libby, "if true, could amount to obstruction of justice beyond that for which Mr. Libby has already been convicted."

Waxman first sought the Bush and Cheney interviews last summer. The chairman followed up in a June 3 letter, which sought unredacted versions of Fitzgerald's interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former White House political adviser Karl Rove, Libby, McClellan and former Cheney spokeswoman Cathie Martin. The Justice Department redacted references to conversations with Bush and Cheney from versions it gave the committee.

Keith Nelson, the principal deputy assistant attorney general, said in a June 11 letter to Waxman that the agency is withholding the Bush and Cheney interviews due to "serious separation of powers and heightened confidentiality concerns." Department spokesman Peter Carr today said, "We have received the subpoena and are reviewing it."

COMMENTS

• I'm so tired of these baffoons in DC wasting out tax dollars on this crap. Never heard what happened to that DEM who walked out of the Pentagon with secrets stuffed in his pockets. I forgot the thiefs name. The congressional DEMs just give there cronies a pass. Plame is a NOBODY in the world of spy's. Why is Waxman wasting our time? Retired Vet Posted June 24, 2008 10:42 AM
• Doesn't anyone remember the secret meetings between Cheney and the oil industry to establish Bush Administration energy policy? Before the meetings gas was about $1.30/gal, now its $4.00/gal. Don't any of you asking Congress to solve the oil crisis get it? The current situation is exactly what Bush and Cheney wanted - and YOU all voted for them twice! Idiots get what they deserve. BJT Posted June 18, 2008 11:29 PM
• This is just typical of Congress beating a dead horse. Armitage was the person that outed Plame.This is a complete waste of time . They need to do something about the cost of oil not mess around with B/S like this. james goen Posted June 17, 2008 1:49 PM