Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
I’m with David Kurtz. In addition to offering good reason to begin impeachment procedures, Bush’s dangerous claims to executive and deliberative privilege really ought to invite us to reconsider the notion that Presidents need to hide their deliberations.
As long as we’re going to be discussing the parameters of executiveprivilege in the weeks and months ahead, can we start by revisiting thenow commonly accepted notion that the President can only get free
This is a follow-up on my post on the loophole in the jurisdiction of DOJ’s Inspector General, which appears to be preventing DOJ’s IG from investigating the role of any lawyer in the USA Purge–which is, after all, just about everyone involved. Here’s how Senator Leahy laid out the problem:
Other Inspectors General can investigate misconduct throughout their agencies.
Okay, Hillary didn’t adopt my recommended response to Eric Edelman’s insubordination. Well, she kind of does, insofar as she notes that Edelman is alone in spouting Cheneyisms:
Other members of this Administration have not engaged in politicalattacks when the prospect of withdrawal planning has been raised.
And she demands that Gates choose whether he supports Edelman’s insubordination.
I request that you describe whether Under Secretary Edelman’s letteraccurately characterizes your views as Secretary of Defense.
This
Amy Goldstein was one of the nicest people covering the Scooter Libby trial and Dan Eggen has been doing excellent work covering the USA Scandal. But their article on the White House’s assertion that no US Attorney can take up the contempt charges that HJC is about to dump on Harriet and Josh Bolten misses some key details.
John Bates has issued a ruling I’ve been anticipating–dismissing the Wilson lawsuit against Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Armitage. If I’m reading correctly, Bates ruled that he has no jurisdiction to rule in this matter.
This Court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ tort claim for public disclosure of private facts.
He therefore did not deal with many of the arguments the Wilsons and the defendants raised in this case–including Cheney’s claim to
Update: Thanks to Scarecrow for directing everyone over here–but don’t miss Hillary’s response to Edelman. She hits all the right notes.
I didn’t realize, at first, when I heard that Hillary had been lectured that public discussion of withdrawal reinforced enemy propaganda, who was doing the lecturing.
Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S.
Oh, this is getting fun.
Remember how I pointed out that Steven Bradbury, the guy who wrote the opinion declaring Harriet immune from having to appear before Congress, was not acting with proper authority?
Well, Leahy, Durbin, Feingold, and Kennedy have raised the stakes on that issue.
We write seeking information about a memorandum issued on July 10, 2007, by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), concluding that former White House Counsel
I’ve been referring to Brigadier Bergner as Baghdad Bergner since he first started giving press conferences. There was the press conference where he blamed Iran for the woes in Iraq, based on the interrogation of one Shiite. There’s this press conference where he blamed all the woes in Iraq on Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Remember how Senator Whitehouse busted Alberto Gonzales for trying to bury the DOJ’s internal investigation of the USA firing into the Office of Professional Responsibility, which has no authority over potential illegalities and doesn’t issue public reports? Remember how Paul Clement, who has ostensibly been in charge of DOJ’s internal investigation since the time Gonzales recused himself, has at the same time been defending the White House’s ability to keep materials
There are two big tidbits in the questions Leahy sent to AGAG to “pre-refresh” his memory before he testifies next week. The first is a question that seems to suggest that the “Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General,” Steven Bradbury, who wrote the opinion judging Harriet immune from compelled Congressional testimony was acting as Acting AAG of the Office of Legal Counsel, in spite of the fact that his nomination to be