Turd Blossom finally deposed by Congress

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

For years, Karl Rove ("Turd Blossom") was protected by a feckless GOP-controlled Congress that completely abdicated its constitutional duty to conduct legislative oversight of the executive branch, and abandoned any and all pretense of a moral and legal obligation to enforce the rule of law – as long as it involved a Republican. There were two standards of law, one for Republicans – never to be held accountable, and one for everyone else.

Further, the Bush White House and Karl Rove's attorneys asserted a bogus expansive claim of executive privilege tantamount to blanket immunity (a "get out of jail free" card) for anyone who worked within the executive branch regardless of whether any protected communications with the president ever occurred or not.

Karl Rove relied upon this bogus theory to simply fail to show up and testify before congressional committees. This is not how one asserts the claim of executive privilege. It was contempt of Congress, pure and simple, for which Karl Rove could have and should have been prosecuted – but for the entirely corrupt and dysfunctional Bush Injustice Department. Congress was forced to sue, for which they prevailed in District Court.

Well, Karl Rove finally was deposed by Congress on Tuesday (I doubt that Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers will give Rove five opportunities to testify to "correct his prior statements" to avoid prosecution for perjury as U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald did in the Valerie Plame investigation). Rove deposed in U.S. attorney probe – POLITICO.com

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed Tuesday by attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee, according to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the panel’s chairman.

Rove’s deposition began at 10 a.m. and ended around 6:30 p.m, with several breaks, Conyers said.

Conyers would not comment on what Rove told congressional investigators, what the next step in the long-running Judiciary Committee investigation would be or whether Rove would face additional questioning.

“He was deposed today,” Conyers said in an interview. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin… said there was an agreement that the depositions would remain confidential until they were completed. However, in a court filing Monday, the Justice Department indicated that the deposition set for this week would be the committee's last.

Conyers’ panel had first subpoenaed Rove in 2007 as part of its probe into the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys. But the Bush White House, citing executive privilege, refused to make Rove or White House Counsel Harriet Miers available for any deposition.

Conyers’ panel responded by filing a civil lawsuit against the White House and prevailed in district court last year but the appeals court had yet to address the issue.

With an agreement between the Obama White House, the Bush White House and House Judiciary Committee, the current Justice Department avoided having to choose sides in court and risk an appeals court precedent which could undercut executive privilege or Congress's right to investigate alleged government malfeasance.

According to the Huffington Post Rove Deposed In U.S. Attorney Probe:

Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., confirmed Rove's closed-door appearance through a committee spokesman who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The committee has been seeking answers on who created the list of federal prosecutors who would lose their jobs. Conyers has suspected the trail led to the White House but couldn't prove it. Former President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege for Rove and former White House lawyer Harriet Miers and refused to let them testify.

An agreement was struck in March between Rove's lawyer and the committee for Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, to testify on the prosecutors' firings, as well as the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama. Siegelman, a Democrat, has alleged that his prosecution was pushed by Republicans, including Rove.

The agreement called for Rove to testify "under the penalty for perjury," Conyers has said. The committee could release the transcripts afterward, but the agreement also allowed for public testimony.

Nine U.S. attorneys were fired. An internal Bush Justice Department investigation concluded that political considerations played a part in at least four of the dismissals.

What happens next is unclear. Zachary Roth at TPM Muckraker reports Rove Testifies, But Next Steps In Probe Remain Murky:

The White House's foot-dragging may have inflicted some measure of political damage. But in terms of the legal repercussions, by coming to a deal while the case was still pending in an appeals court, the Bushies have largely succeeded in one of their goals: ensuring that no clear precedent has been established limiting the president's power to claim executive privilege in such cases. And the Obama White House's role in helping to secure the deal for Rove's testimony suggests that's an outcome they wanted too.

As for the underlying issue — the quest to learn what really happened in the firings and the Siegelman prosecution, things remain murky at best. There are conflicting reports about whether Rove will sit for another day of testimony. It's also unclear when and how the committee will decide which parts of Rove's testimony, if any, can be made public, and in what form the probe's findings will be released.

For anyone who does not believe that political prosecutions still occur in this country, then you are not familiar with the sordid tale of former Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama. For a compendium of posts about the Siegelman case, see Don Siegelman | TPMMuckraker.

Don Siegelman was happy to talk. The Democratic former governor of Alabama, who in 2006 was convicted on corruption charges in what many have labeled a politicized prosecution, told TPMmuckraker he doesn't hold out much hope that Rove's testimony yesterday will have revealed much about the GOP political guru's alleged role in the case. "Karl Rove is one of those who can lie under oath and take a lie detector test and pass it," said Siegelman.

But the ex-guv added that, based on conversations with Conyers and his staff, he feels confident that the investigation will help get to the truth. "I have looked [Conyers] in the eye, and he has had discussions with me that have convinced me completely that he is 100 percent committed to this investigation," said Siegelman.

Justice will not be served until this arrogant bastard Karl Rove is treated like the common criminal that he is and he is given the "perp walk" off to jail to await trial by a jury of his peers subject to the same standard of justice to which the rest of us are held accountable under the rule of law. Don't hold your breath.