CREW sues VP Cheney over Vice Presidential records

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From: Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW)

CREW sues VP Cheney over Vice Presidential records

8 Sep 2008 // Today CREW, along with two eminent historians and three organizations of historians and archivists filed a complaint against Vice President Cheney, the Office of the Vice President, the archivist and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), challenging their exclusion of a vast majority of Vice President Cheney's papers from the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and the obligation to preserve for the American public. In an executive order issued in 2001, President Bush declared that the PRA applied only to the "executive records" of the vice president. Since that time, the vice president has taken the view that he is not part of the executive and is attached, if at all, to the congressional branch. Moreover, the archivist takes the view that the congressional records of a vice president are his personal, not presidential, records that he is free to dispose of at will. As a result of these unlawful policies, without judicial intervention on January 20, 2009, the vast majority of Vice President Cheney's records will not be transferred to NARA for eventual release to the public, but instead will remain under the vice president's custody and control. CREW is also seeking an order mandating preservation of all of the vice president's records pending the lawsuit.

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Contact your US Rep. and express your opinions on Impeachment bill introduced against Pres. George W Bush

Legislation including 35 Articles of Impeachment against Pres. George W. Bush was introduced in the US House recently by Dennis Kucinich (D-OH); Robert Wexler (D-FL) is a leading co-signor. Kucinich, a leader of the Progressive Caucus of the US House Democratic caucus, earlier this year ran unsuccessfully for his party's presidential nomination.

On April 24th, Rep. Kucinich introduced H.Res.333, Impeachment against Vice Pres. Richard Cheney. There are presently 26 Co-Sponsors- it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which has taken no action on the resolution.

Express your opinion on this legislation by contacting your US Representative- all congress members have official US House websites with feedback/contact forms; you may request a reply to your letter, but they are not always returned. A new, expanded "Contact your representative tips" is on this blog's left-side column. Thank you

Attorney General Mukasey will not enforce contempt charges against executive branch officials from Congress

TPMmuckraker blog has an update on Attorney General Mukasey's interview before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. On the issue of whether he would enforce a charge of contempt by Congress against executive branch officials who deny subpoenas, he said "no". This is clearly against his charge of office. In controversy after controversy from the Bush administration, the executive branch has been siding on obfuscation, denial, rejection, lies and contempt when it has been asked for further information from Congress.

Perhaps Senator Robert Wexler's intent to call for impeachment hearings against Vice President Cheney is due to, as he says, "these abuses of executive power and the fact that the White House still refuses to provide any answers whatsoever to subpoenas."