I was checking out the House of Representatives website to see what happened on the floor today, and what do I see?
The record shows that a number of Congresscritters (from both parties) made the following notification -
The House received a communication from the Honorable _____. Pursuant to Rule VIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, Mr. _____ notified the House that he had been served with a subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California for testimony and that after consultation with the Office of General Counsel, he determined that compliance with the subpoena is inconsistent with the precedents and privileges of the House.
The list included Jerry Weller, Roy Blunt, Ike Skelton, Silvestre Reyes, John Murtha, Joe Knollenberg, Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter, Peter Hoekstra, John Doolittle, Dennis Hastert, Norm Dicks, and Jerry Lewis.
That's a pretty high-powered bunch to drop paper on (most of them serve on major committees like Armed Services, Appropriations, or Foreign Affairs); even if it's just a fishing expedition, I bet it's an interesting one.
Anybody know what it's about?
Edit at 2:00 p.m. on 9/18 to add -
Apparently, I wasn't the only one to notice the Congresscritters defying of the subpoenas, en masse.
From MSNBC.com -
WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt and 11 other members of Congress have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing jailed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
All of the lawmakers said they do not intend to comply with the subpoenas.
They were subpoenaed by attorneys for defense contractor Brent Wilkes; many of the Congresscritters stated that they simply had no knowledge that would help either side of the trial.
Assuming that's true for most of them, this really does sound like a fishing expedition/smokescreen, a legal operation mounted to assure Mr. Wilkes that he is getting his money's worth.
End edit.
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