Rove offered for unsworn testimony
By Thomas Ferraro and Tabassum Zakaria 49 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House offered on Tuesday to make
President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, available to congressional investigators but rejected Democratic demands he testify under oath regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys.
In a letter to relevant members of Congress, White House counsel Fred Fielding made clear he was not offering Rove and other aides to give sworn testimony as had been requested.
"Such interviews would be private and conducted without the need for an oath, transcript, subsequent testimony or the subsequent issuance of subpoenas," Fielding wrote.
Democratic lawmakers described the offer as unsatisfactory, saying they wanted the witnesses under oath. But they also said they would consider it before formally responding.
"It is sort of giving us the opportunity to talk to them, but not giving us the opportunity to get to the bottom of what really happened here," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat. "In that way, it is a pretty clever proposal."
Congressional committees plan to vote this week on whether to subpoena those who refuse to testify. They are particularly interested in hearing from Rove. A former aide to Rove was named to replace one of the prosecutors fired last year.
The White House said Bush would address the issue at 5:45 p.m./2145 GMT when he returned from Kansas City. Officials said Bush would reiterate his support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after speaking to him by phone earlier in the day, and call on Congress to accept Fielding's offer.
The fallout over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys has triggered a Democratic investigation over whether the action was politically motivated and raised doubts about how long Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can remain in his job.
A number of Democrats and a few Republicans in Congress calling for Gonzales to step aside.
Scrambling to contain the damage, Fielding was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday trying to arrange an agreement with the heads of the judiciary committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In addition to Rove, Fielding offered Bush's former White House counsel Harriet Miers for interviews. Miers initially was blamed for coming up with the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys after Bush's re-election in 2004.
Also offered by Fielding were deputy White House counsel William Kelley and political adviser Scott Jennings.
"We believe that such interviews should be a last resort, and should be conducted, if needed, only after Congress has heard from
Department of Justice officials about the decision to request the resignations of the U.S. attorneys," Fielding wrote.
Critics charge the administration dismissed the prosecutors to make room for its allies or because it felt some were too tough on Republicans and not tough enough on Democrats.
Recently released documents showed the administration had considered firing all the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys at the end of president's first term. But later, according to the documents, dismissed just eight.
The documents also showed the U.S. attorneys were judged on such factors as their effectiveness as well as their loyalty to the administration and support of its initiatives.
(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Steve Holland)