Separation of Powers
White House Obtains Stay of Order to Turn Over Documents in Firing Probe
Posted Sep 8, 2008, 05:27 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal appeals court has granted a stay of a judge’s order that White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten must turn over documents to a House committee probing the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the temporary stay on Thursday and asked for additional briefing on two issues, reports The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. One is whether the federal appeals court has jurisdiction and the other is whether the case will become moot at the end of the 110th Congress. The appeals court said it granted the temporary stay to allow itself more time to consider a motion to delay enforcement of the judge’s ruling.
The order will also probably delay the testimony of former White House counsel Harriet Miers, who is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the firing probe on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
The administration is appealing a July 31 ruling by U.S. District Judge John Bates requiring Bolten to turn over documents or explain why they were being withheld. His ruling also required Miers to testify before Congress or assert her executive privilege claims on a question-by-question basis.
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