Executive Branch
WH Aide Offers BlackBerry Excuse
Posted Aug 3, 2007, 06:41 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The showdown between the administration and the Senate Judiciary Committee took another turn yesterday, as a White House aide refused to answer questions.
J. Scott Jennings was called to testify about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. But in response to each question about the firings, he said he could not answer “pursuant to President Bush’s directive invoking executive privilege,” the New York Times reports.
Jennings’ boss, political adviser Karl Rove, was a no-show.
Jennings did testify about e-mails transmitted through accounts of the Republican National Committee, which puts them outside the reach of a federal law requiring preservation. Jennings said he was using that account because the RNC gave him a BlackBerry, while the White House didn’t, the Washington Post reports.