Patrick Leahy: “I have a very serious matter that I will discuss at this time in my capacity as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.…”

“I have a very serious matter that I will discuss at this time in my capacity as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers and I received another letter from White House Counsel Fred Fielding responding to duly authorized subpoenas with a blanket assertion of executive privilege. I had hoped that the Judiciary Committee subpoenas would be met with compliance, not with confrontation. But instead they have been met, yet again, with Nixonian stonewalling that shows this White House's disdain for our system of checks and balances. This is more stonewalling for a White House that believes it can unilaterally control the other coequal branches of Government. It raises this question: What is the White House trying to hide by refusing to turn over this evidence? From the outset of this scandal, the President spoke about the firing of U.S. attorneys as if it were a matter handled and decided by the Attorney General, and something Mr. Gonzales would have to explain to Congress and the American people.”