Executive Privilege

Seeking to avert the quick intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, White House lawyers Monday withdrew President Clinton's controversial claim of executive privilege in the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation. Instead of using executive privilege--the doctrine employed unsuccessfully by President Nixon during the Watergate scandal--Clinton now is asserting only the attorney-client privilege to limit questioning of his closest staff confidant, Deputy Counsel Bruce R. Lindsey.

The voice of Ronald Reagan filled a federal courtroom for five hours Wednesday as jurors watched the former President discuss his recollections of the Iran-Contra affair in videotaped testimony at the trial of John M. Poindexter. The jury, which appeared mostly attentive during the often tedious testimony shown on four television sets, heard Reagan cite a poor memory as the answer to dozens of questions about the Iran-Contra case. As the day began, U.S. District Judge Harold H.

In a setback for the White House, a federal judge has rejected President Clinton's use of executive privilege to prevent questioning of top aides about certain aspects of the Monica S. Lewinsky controversy. The judge's ruling, filed under seal but described by people familiar with the investigation, addresses one of the major legal issues hanging over Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's probe of Clinton's relationship with the former White House intern.

President Bush has invoked a rarely used presidential power to block Congress from obtaining a key Defense Department memorandum in which senior Pentagon officials arranged for McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics to defer repaying $1.3 billion to the government. The deferral, resulting from the Navy's cancellation of the A-12 attack jet program, has been criticized in Congress as a secret government bailout of the firms, triggering a House investigation into its rationale.

House Democrats began laying the groundwork for finding former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers in contempt of Congress on Thursday when, as expected, she failed to appear at a congressional hearing on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year. In a party-line 7-5 vote, a House judiciary subcommittee dismissed claims of executive privilege that Miers invoked through her lawyer in refusing to appear despite a subpoena.

Over the last six years, the Bush administration has been widely seen as one of the most secretive and resistant to outside scrutiny in modern times. It has invoked executive privilege to prevent disclosure of its internal deliberations and advanced a theory of the "unitary executive" to avoid traditional checks on presidential power. President Bush has also asserted the right to ignore parts of new laws.

The growing Enron debacle is turning up the political heat on Vice President Dick Cheney, who has refused to detail his contacts with company officials while developing a national energy policy last year. Amid Democratic charges that he granted Enron undue access--and produced in secret an industry-friendly plan--Cheney's unyielding stance has hampered the Bush administration's efforts to distance itself from the scandal.

Congress and the Bush administration headed for a preelection showdown Wednesday over the issue of executive privilege, with House Democrats scheduling a hearing that would put a key former administration figure under oath and the Justice Department mapping a last-ditch court appeal. Justice lawyers said they would go to court as soon as today to block a ruling by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that forces the White House to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the politically charged firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Congressional investigators are hoping to learn more from former President Clinton's top aides about what led to his last-minute pardons, but prospects of obtaining their testimony are far from certain. The House Government Reform Committee has asked Clinton to waive any executive privilege claims that could keep aides such as former White House lawyers Bruce Lindsey and Beth Nolan from disclosing what they know, but the panel has received no response.

Former President Ronald Reagan, forgoing his right to claim executive privilege, agreed Friday to testify on videotape as a defense witness in John M. Poindexter's Iran-Contra trial. Reagan will be questioned under oath by Poindexter's lawyers and cross-examined by the Iran-Contra special counsel during the taping.