Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REINING IN THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush House Committee on the Judiciary Majority Staff Report to Chairman John Conyers, Jr. January 13, 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 The September 25, 2001, War Powers Memorandum . .....................27 Critique of John Yoo’s Flawed Theory of Presidential Supremacy.................32 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 . .........................54 A. Factual Background ............................... ..........54 B. Committee Actions ................................ .........56 III. Findings ....................................... .................63 Politicization of the Prosecution Function . ...............63 Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Enforcement ................................................... 69 Section 2 – Assault on Individual Liberty: Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and Black Sites, Extraordinary Rendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, and National Security and Exigent Letters ................................................... ............72 I. Detention ........................................ ...............74 A. Factual Background ............................... ..........74 November 2001 Decision to Try Detainees, Including U.S. Citizens, in Military Commissions ............................... 75 December 2001 Decision to Hold Detainees at Guantanamo .........78 The Administration’s Public Defense of Its Guantanamo Policies . 78 B. The Bush Administration’s Detention Policies in the Courts .........81 The President’s Power to Detain an American Citizen Captured in 1 Afghanistan Without Judicial Review ( Hamdi )..............81 The President’s Power to Establish Military Commissions to Determine Validity of Detention ( Hamdan ) .........................85 The President’s Power to Order Detention of Persons Without Access to Federal Courts – Rasul and Boumediene ...................87 The President’s Power to Order the Military Detention of an American Citizen Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (Padilla )............................................89 The President’s Power to Order Military Detention of Lawfully Admitted Alien Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States ( al- Marri ).............................................103 C. Committee Action ................................ .........107 II. Interrogation.................................. ..................110 A. Factual Background ............................. ...........110 December 2001toFebruary 2002 – Determinations That the Protections of the Geneva Conventions, Including Common Article III, Do Not Apply to Guantanamo Detainees ...................... 110 The August 1, 2002 Torture Memorandum . ........112 August 1, 2002 – Waterboarding Approved for CIA Use ...........114 October 2002 to March 2003 – Development of Techniques for Use at Guantanamo ........................................115 John Yoo’s March 14, 2003, Torture Memorandum . .........118 Use of Harsh Interrogation at Guantanamo . ...........120 Migration of Guantanamo Interrogation Techniques to Abu Ghraib . 121 Role of High-level Officials ....................... ...........122 The Congress and the President Battle over Interrogation Techniques ..................................................123 Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Videotapes . ...........127 B. Committee Action ................................. ........128 Effectiveness of Enhanced Interrogation . ............128 Potential Criminal Liability for Destruction of Videotapes ..........130 OLC Opinions Concerning Enhanced Interrogation and Potential Legal Liability Thereto.................................. 131 III. Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites .....................137 A. Factual Background for Legal Memoranda . ...........137 B. Committee Action ................................. ........142 IV. Warrantless Surveillance ....................... ..................146 A. The Genesis of the Bush Administration’s Warrantless Surveillance Program ............................................ 146 B. Internal Disagreements as to the Program’s Legality; Disclosure of the Program by The New York Times in December 2005 ..............148 C. Bush Administration’s Public Statements Concerning Warrantless Surveillance ....................................... .......155 2 D. Concerns About Legality and Effectiveness of the President’s Warrantless Surveillance ....................................... .......156 E. Additional Scrutiny and Legislative Activity in the 110 th Congress . 161 V. National Security Letters (NSLs) and Exigent Letters....................166 A. The Increased use of NSLs Subsequent to 9/11 and the Enactment of the PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT Reauthorization Act . .......166 B. March 2007 Justice Department Inspector General Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings ................................. ......167 C. March 2008 Justice Department IG “Assessment of Corrective Action” Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings . .........170 VI. Findings ........................................ ...............173 Detention .......................................... ......173 Interrogation...................................... ........175 Extraordinary Rendition, Ghosting and Black Sites . .............176 NSLs and Exigent Letters ........................... ........181 Section 3 – Misuse of Executive Branch Authority ................................185 I. Presidential Signing Statements .................. ...................185 A. Historical Background ............................ ..........186 B. The Bush Administration’s Use of Signing Statements.............187 The McCain Amendment on Treatment of Detainees . .........188 USA PATRIOT Act .................................... 188 Affirmative Action................................. ........188 Whistleblower Protections .......................... .........189 C. Committee Actions ................................ ........189 II. Rulemaking Process.............................. ................191 A. Factual Background ............................... .........191 B. Executive Control by the Bush Administration . ..............193 Executive Order 13422: Expanding White House Political Control Over Rulemaking ........................................193 Greater Specificity and Market Analysis Requirements ............194 Heightened Scrutiny of Significant Guidance Documents ..........194 Greater Emphasis on Cost-Benefit Analysis . ...........195 Greater Role for Political Appointees in the Rulemaking Process . 196 C. Efforts by OIRA to Control Rulemaking . ............196 Direct Intervention by the Administration to Control Rulemaking . 197 Using Directives and Other Means to Circumvent Formal Rulemaking ..................................................198 Midnight Rulemaking ................................ ......199 D. Lack of Transparency............................. ..........201 III. Findings ....................................... ................203 Abuse of Presidential Signing Statements . ............203 3 Rulemaking Process ................................. .......205 Section 4 – Retribution Against Critics .........................................208 I. The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity and Its Aftermath . 208 A. The July 2003 Disclosure by the Press ............ .............208 B. The Bush Administration’s Response to the Leak . ..............209 C. The Libby Indictment and Trial: Evidence of a White House Leak . 211 D. Mr. Libby’s Conviction, Sentence, and Presidential Grant of Clemency ................................................... 216 E. Committee Actions ................................ ........218 The Leak ........................................... 218 The White House’s Response to the Leak . ..........219 The President’s Grant of Clemency . ..........221 II. Retaliation Against Other Administration Critics .......................224 Military Officers – Including Former General Eric Shinseki .........225 Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Economic Advisor Lawrence Lindsey............................................ 225 Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke . ...........226 Army Core of Engineers Chief Contracting Office Bunnatine Greenhouse ..................................................227 III. Findings ....................................... ................228 The Leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s Covert CIA Identity ..........228 Section 5 – Government in the Shadows: Executive Privilege, Secrecy, and the Manipulation of Intelligence ............233 I. Executive Privilege ............................. .................234 A. Formal Assertions of Executive Privilege . ..............234 Pushing the Boundaries