Posts by Kate Klonick

At long last, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Bush aide and adviser Karl Rove have agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on their knowledge of and involvement in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.

It’s official: the House Judiciary Committee has once again subpoenaed Karl Rove, former President George W. Bush’s longtime adviser and aide, to testify before the committee on the politicization of the Justice Department and his involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D).
Rove’s prior refusals to testify were based on claims of [...]

If today’s confirmation hearing for Solicitor General-nominee Elena Kagan was a supposed “trial balloon” for the scrutiny of a possible Supreme Court appointment, expect smooth sailing.

Three top Obama Justice Department picks have blogged their legal theories — a practice about as far from writing secret torture memos as you can get.

It been nearly sixty days since he was first nominated, but the Senate Judiciary Committee has finally voted 17-2 today to send Eric Holder’s nomination for attorney general to the full Senate for confirmation. A Senate vote is expected this week.
The positive outcome of the vote was expected after the committee’s ranking Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. [...]

Karl Rove, who previously refused to testify to his involvement in the politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney firing scandal as former President George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff, was subpoenaed today by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.).
From the Committee’s press release, which is posted on The Huffington Post:
“I have [...]

Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s hard line on interrogation (”waterboarding is torture“) rattled Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and a few minority Senators enough to delay the vote to send Holder’s nomination to the Senate floor.  After all, if waterboarding is torture, and torture is a crime, who’s to say that the Justice Department won’t start prosecuting [...]

Capitol Hill Democrats didn’t waste any time in voicing support for President Obama’s first executive orders to close Guantanamo Bay within the year, ban torture and close all secret CIA prisons.

The Senate Judiciary Committee vote to send Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder’s confirmation to the full Senate has been postponed after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), the ranking minority member, announced that the minority had reached a “unanimous view that there was insufficient time to question Mr. Holder” during a meeting earlier this morning.

Specter’s announcement clearly upset [...]

I just got off the phone with David Iglesias, a former U.S. attorney and newly named Guantanamo Bay prosecutor, who discussed the fate of the Gitmo cases now that President Obama has announced that he has already filed a motion to halt military commission trials.

“It’s unclear right now,” Iglesias said about whether his new [...]