The Obama Justice Department has asked for more time to file a brief in an appeals case that pits the House Judiciary Committee against former Bush White House oficials Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, Keith Perine at CQ reports.
The brief was due Feb. 18; the government has asked for an extension until March 4. Perine says this is a sign that negotiations are taking place to settle the case out of court. The case is an important test of Bush’s broad and controversial executive privilege claims.
Miers, a former White House counsel; and Bolton, the former White House chief of staff, refused to comply with subpoenas from the committee last year. The panel sought documents and, in Miers’ case, testimony in an investigation into Bush administration politicization of DOJ. The House sued and won at the district court. The government appealed. In snubbing the committee, Miers and Bolton said their work product was protected because they were White House staffers. But courts have typically interpreted executive privilege to protect only direct communications with the president.
