Reining in the Imperial Presidency
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REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush House Committee on the Judiciary Majority Staff Final Report to Chairman John Conyers, Jr. March 2009 Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush Table of Contents Foreword ................................................... ................9 Executive Summary ................................................... ...... 16 Preface: Deconstructing the Imperial Presidency ................................24 I. The September 25, 2001 War Powers Memorandum . ............... 27 II. Critique of John Yoo’s Flawed Theory of Presidential Supremacy. 33 III. The Need for a Judiciary Committee Staff Report ....................... 40 Section 1 – Politicization of the Department of Justice ............................41 I. Politicization of the Prosecution Function . ...................... 43 A. Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys and other Department Personnel . 43 B. Selective Prosecution ............................ ........... 50 II. Politicization of the Civil Rights Division . ........................ 55 A. Factual Background ............................... ......... 55 B. Committee Actions ................................ ........ 58 III. Findings ....................................... ................ 66 Politicization of the Prosecution Function . .............. 66 Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Enforcement........................................ 72 Section 2 – Assault on Individual Liberty: Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and Black Sites, Extraordinary Rendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, and National Security and Exigent Letters ................................................... ........... 75 I. Detention ........................................ .............. 77 A. Factual Background ............................... ......... 77 November 2001 Decision to Try Detainees, Including U.S. Citizens, in Military Commissions ............................... 78 December 2001 Decision to Hold Detainees at Guantanamo ........ 81 The Administration’s Public Defense of Its Guantanamo Policies . 82 B. The Bush Administration’s Detention Policies in the Courts ........ 85 The President’s Power to Detain an American Citizen Captured in 1 Afghanistan Without Judicial Review ( Hamdi )............. 85 The President’s Power to Establish Military Commissions to Determine Validity of Detention ( Hamdan ) ........................89 The President’s Power to Order Detention of Persons Without Access to Federal Courts – Rasul and Boumediene .................. 91 The President’s Power to Order the Military Detention of an American Citizen Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (Padilla )...........................................93 The President’s Power to Order Military Detention of Lawfully Admitted Alien Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States ( al- Marri )............................................107 C. Committee Action ................................ ........ 111 II. Interrogation.................................. ................. 114 A. Factual Background ............................. .......... 114 December 2001 to February 2002 – Determinations That the Protections of the Geneva Conventions, Including Common Article III, Do Not Apply to Guantanamo Detainees . 114 The August 1, 2002 Torture Memorandum . ....... 116 August 1, 2002 – Waterboarding Approved for CIA Use .......... 118 October 2002 to March 2003 – Development of Techniques for Use at Guantanamo ....................................... 119 John Yoo’s March 14, 2003 Torture Memorandum . ....... 122 Use of Harsh Interrogation at Guantanamo . .......... 124 Migration of Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques to Abu Ghraib . 126 Role of High-level Officials ....................... .......... 127 The Congress and the President Battle over Interrogation Techniques .................................................128 Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Videotapes . .......... 132 B. Committee Action ................................. ....... 133 Effectiveness of Enhanced Interrogation . ........... 133 Potential Criminal Liability for Destruction of Videotapes ......... 135 OLC Opinions Concerning Enhanced Interrogation and Potential Legal Liability Thereto.................................. 136 III. Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites .................... 143 A. Factual Background for Legal Memoranda . .......... 143 B. Committee Action ................................. ....... 147 IV. Warrantless Surveillance ....................... ................. 152 A. The Genesis of the Bush Administration’s Warrantless Surveillance Program ............................................ 152 B. Internal Disagreements as to the Program’s Legality; Disclosure of the Program by The New York Times in December 2005 ............. 154 C. Bush Administration’s Public Statements Concerning Warrantless Surveillance ....................................... ...... 160 2 D. Concerns About Legality and Effectiveness of the President’s Warrantless Surveillance ....................................... ...... 162 E. Additional Scrutiny and Legislative Activity in the 110 th Congress . 167 V. National Security Letters (NSLs) and Exigent Letters................... 172 A. The Increased use of NSLs Subsequent to 9/11 and the Enactment of the PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT Reauthorization Act . ...... 172 B. March 2007 Justice Department Inspector General Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings ...................... ....... 173 C. March 2008 Justice Department IG “Assessment of Corrective Action” Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings . ........ 177 VI. Findings ........................................ .............. 180 Detention .......................................... ..... 180 Interrogation...................................... ....... 181 Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites . ............ 183 NSLs and Exigent Letters ........................... ....... 188 Section 3 – Misuse of Executive Branch Authority ............................... 191 I. Presidential Signing Statements .................. .................. 191 A. Historical Background ............................ ......... 192 B. The Bush Administration’s Use of Signing Statements............ 193 The McCain Amendment on Treatment of Detainees . ........ 194 USA PATRIOT Act .................................... 194 Affirmative Action................................. ....... 194 Whistleblower Protections .......................... ........ 195 C. Committee Actions ................................ ....... 195 II. Rulemaking Process.............................. ............... 197 A. Factual Background ............................... ........ 197 B. Executive Control by the Bush Administration . ............. 199 Executive Order 13422: Expanding White House Political Control Over Rulemaking ....................................... 199 Greater Specificity and Market Analysis Requirements ........... 200 Heightened Scrutiny of Significant Guidance Documents ......... 200 Greater Emphasis on Cost-Benefit Analysis . .......... 201 Greater Role for Political Appointees in the Rulemaking Process . 202 C. Efforts by OIRA to Control Rulemaking . ........... 202 Direct Intervention by the Administration to Control Rulemaking . 203 Using Directives and Other Means to Circumvent Formal Rulemaking .................................................204 Midnight Rulemaking ................................ ..... 205 D. Lack of Transparency............................. ......... 207 III. Findings ....................................... ............... 209 Abuse of Presidential Signing Statements . ........... 209 3 Rulemaking Process ................................. ...... 211 Section 4 – Retribution Against Critics ........................................214 I. The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity and Its Aftermath ................................................... .......... 214 A. The July 2003 Disclosure by the Press ............ ............ 214 B. The Bush Administration’s Response to the Leak . ............. 215 C. The Libby Indictment and Trial: Evidence of a White House Leak . 217 D. Mr. Libby’s Conviction, Sentence, and Presidential Grant of Clemency ................................................... 222 E. Committee Actions ................................ ....... 224 The Leak ........................................... 224 The White House’s Response to the Leak . ......... 226 The President’s Grant of Clemency . ......... 228 II. Retaliation Against Other Administration Critics ...................... 231 Military Officers – Including Former General Eric Shinseki ........ 231 Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Economic Advisor Lawrence Lindsey...........................................232 Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke . .......... 233 Army Core of Engineers Chief Contracting Office Bunnatine Greenhouse .................................................234 III. Findings ....................................... ............... 234 The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity ......... 234 Section 5 – Government in the Shadows: Executive Privilege, Secrecy, and the Manipulation of Intelligence ........... 239 I. Executive Privilege ............................. ................ 240 A. Formal Assertions of Executive Privilege . ............. 240 Pushing the Boundaries