JURIST - Paper Chase: House panel votes to subpoena Cheney aide on DOJ interrogation memo

[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] Tuesday voted to issue a subpoena to compel Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington [US News profile] to testify about a recently released Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum [text; JURIST report] that advised the US Department of Defense that military interrogators could employ a wide range of interrogation methods when questioning foreign detainees outside the United States without fear of criminal liability or constitutional sanction. Last week, Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) threatened to seek subpoenas [materials; JURIST report] to compel Addington and other current and former administration officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile], to testify. Former Assistant Deputy Attorney General and memo author John Yoo [academic profile] agreed to testify Monday without facing a subpoena; Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith [personal website], and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin [firm profile] have also agreed to testify, but former CIA Director George Tenet [SourceWatch profile] is still in discussions with the committee. AP has more.

In March, the committee filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] to enforce subpoenas seeking information from former White House legal counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profiles] regarding the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive].

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