Sara Taylor - Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy

Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy

On June 13, 2007 The Senate and House judiciary committees issued a subpoena to Taylor, to produce documents and testify before the committee. A subpoena was also issued to Harriet E. Miers, former White House counsel and supreme court nominee. In response to the subpoenas, the White House said that its longstanding policy was that no past or present White House officials would be permitted to testify under oath before the panels, and that only private, non-legally-binding, non-transcribed interviews would be permitted.

The Democratic chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees said that the White House terms were unacceptable.

A ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee, Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that Taylor had not responded to an April 11, 2007 inquiry by the committee, and he supported the issuance of the subpoena in light of the lack of response by Taylor. On July 9, 2007, White House counsel Fred Fielding, in letters to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) said the President Bush is invoking executive privilege and not allowing Taylor to testify, but reiterated that Taylor was available for a private, off the record interview.

Ultimately, on July 11, 2007, Taylor did appear before the committee, where she testified that she did not talk to or meet with President Bush about removing federal prosecutors before eight of them were fired. Former Chief of Staff to the attorney general Kyle Sampson had already testified that Taylor was upset when the Attorney General finally "rejected" use of the interim authority to appoint US Attorneys without Senate confirmation. However, under questioning from Chairman Leahy, Taylor responded "I did not speak to the president about removing U.S. attorneys. I did not attend any meetings with the president where that matter was discussed." Taylor answered many questions with "I don't recall." "Taylor shifted between defending the Bush administration and refusing to answer questions, claiming executive privilege via a letter from White House counsel Fred Fielding."

At one point Taylor said "I took an oath and I take that oath to the president very seriously." She was corrected by Leahy who pointed out that her oath had been to uphold the Constitution, "Your oath is not to uphold the president." After she agreed with his statement, Leahy said "We understand your personal loyalty to President Bush. I appreciate you correcting that your oath was not to the president, but to the Constitution. But you also have legal obligations to honor your oath to tell the truth, the whole truth. And failures to produce documents and no recalls, those are very difficult for me to accept as chairman of this committee."

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) told Taylor "You might have been on safer legal ground if you'd said absolutely nothing.... You are between a rock and a hard place. There's no way you can come out a winner. And I don't think any U.S. attorney anywhere, as the appointee of the president, is going to bring a criminal contempt citation. But if this committee asks for one, it will be a big cloud over you, a big smear that'll last the rest of your life."

She was found not to have any knowledge of the acts and all subpoenas were dismissed.