Nick Juliano, Raw Story
Vice President Dick Cheney’s office has in its possession more than 50 documents related to a congressional investigation of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, but Cheney’s lawyer on Monday refused to hand over the documents in response to a subpoena.
In a letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the vice president’s lawyer, Shannen W. Coffin, identified dozens of presidential authorizations of the program and Justice Department memos on its legal justifications in Cheney’s possession. Coffin refused to hand over the documents, citing a president’s right to keep deliberations with his advisers private.
“The Office of the Vice President possesses copies of documents … that we understand to be of the most interest to the Committee and with respect to which a claim of Executive Privilege if made would clearly be valid,” Coffin wrote in the letter Leahy released to reporters Monday.
(Original Article)