McClellan to Testify Before House
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) hasn’t had much luck getting former White House officials to testify before his panel this year. Former senior aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, for example, have both defied requests, even in the face of subpoenas. They claim the executive privilege of the president extends also to his advisers.
But it appears that that won’t be the case with former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, whose recently released book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” skewered the administration on everything from selling the Iraq war to bumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Among McClellan’s most damning assertions was the claim that Rove and then-vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby misled him about their involvement in the controversial outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. That deceit, McClellan writes, caused him to make false statements to reporters during his stint as spokesman.
The passage wasn’t lost on Conyers, who’s quoted in today’s Washington Post:
“„In his book, Mr. McClellan suggests that senior White House officials may have obstructed justice and engaged in a coverup regarding the Valerie Plame leak. This alleged activity could well extend beyond the scope of the offenses for which Scooter Libby has been convicted and deserves further attention.
Testimony is scheduled for June 20. Better get in line now, because it’s sure to draw interest.
