May 2nd, 2007
Senate subpoenas Gonzales' emails with Rove
Senators subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' emails today, demanding all email correspondence between him and Karl Rove related to the firings of eight federal prosecutors, The Washington Post reports.
"It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee's inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to Gonzales. The subpoena gives Gonzales until May 15 to turn over the information.
The White House had previously claimed that many of Rove's emails were lost, but Leahy was clearly not buying it. Rove's lawyer had said that some of the "lost" emails had been turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
It was unclear whether any of those were related to the prosecutor firings, but congressional investigators believe that if Fitzgerald could retrieve some e-mails for his investigation, the ones related to the firings of U.S. attorneys are recoverable as well.
The White House has said it is trying to recover e-mails that were lost but has not promised to turn any over to congressional investigators.
The order compels the Justice Department to turn over "complete and unredacted versions of any and all e-mails and attachments to e-mails to, from, or copied to Karl Rove" related to the firings, written on White House, Republican National Committee or any other e-mail accounts.
The committee is investigating whether Rove and other White House staff conducted official business on Republican National Committee accounts and illegally deleted them.
