Vote Set to Hold White House in Contempt
The chairman of a House panel investigating the White House travel office firings said Wednesday that his committee would vote today to hold the White House in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.
Negotiations to resolve the often rancorous dispute between Rep. William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.) and White House Counsel Jack Quinn broke down Wednesday afternoon with the White House saying it would claim executive privilege over the documents.
In a statement, Clinger said he was “frankly astonished” that President Clinton was claiming executive privilege. Clinton, “who once claimed to be the most open and cooperative administration in history,” Clinger said, “has now turned to a Watergate legal loophole to prevent legitimate oversight by Congress.”
White House spokesman Mark D. Fabiani dismissed the investigation as a “misuse of a House committee and a waste of tax dollars in a political campaign against the president.”
If the contempt measure against Quinn and two others is approved by the committee and then by the full House, the matter would go to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who would decide whether to prosecute.
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