SJC Gives WH More Time on Wiretapping SubpoenasSometimes comity is possible, even when it comes to oversight on potentially illegal surveillance programs.
Today was the deadline set by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the White House to respond to a subpoena for documents establishing the origins and scope of the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. But yesterday, White House counsel Fred Fielding — who’s locked in subpoena battles with the committee and its House counterpart over the U.S. attorney scandal — wrote to chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and asked for more time to dig through “a wide range of materials” possibly relevant to the subpoena. Leahy agreed, citing his willingness to “accommodate reasonable requests.”
There’s no new deadline for compliance attached to the subpoena extension. Leahy said that he hopes the White House “uses this additional time constructively to finish gathering the relevant information and then works with us in good faith on ways to provide it.” That’s the big question: whether Fielding and his counterparts on the National Security Council and vice president’s office will pull a Harriet Miers and rebuff the congressional demand.
So far the White House isn’t tipping its hand. The White House has regretted, in a spokesman’s words last month, the committee’s “route of confrontation,” but it hasn’t ruled out any course of action. Yet given how much value the White House has attached to the long-secret surveillance program — and, of course, the lingering questions over its legality — compliance with the subpoena would be a remarkable decision for the administration.
According to a committee staffer, negotiations between the White House and the committee for determining a reasonable time frame for the subpoena extension are set to begin in the coming days.
Update: Read the White House’s letters to the committee here.