The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a bipartisan report today that concluded George W. Bush abused his claim of executive privilege
“„The central document in this dispute is the report of the FBI interview with the vice president. Both the chairman and the ranking Member are in agreement that the president’s assertion of executive privilege over this document was legally unprecedented and an inappropriate use of executive privilege.
“„The attorney general argues that the committee should not have access to the report of the interview because of the sensitive nature of the matters discussed. In this case, however, the committee is not seeking to examine sensitive questions of foreign policy or national security. Rather, the committee is seeking information on the role, if any, played by the vice president and others in the White House in the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer and what steps, if any, the vice president and others took to investigate and respond to the leak after it occurred. There is no reason to believe that the special counsel’s interview with the vice president went beyond these questions and into areas relating to presidential decision-making about foreign policy or national security.