WASHINGTON, JUNE 27, 2007--Former Attorney
General Edwin Meese III, chairman of The Heritage Foundation's
Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, today issued the
following statement concerning today's assertion of executive
privilege by the White House. The assertion came in response to
subpoenas issued by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers,
D-Mich., seeking documents and testimony regarding the resignation
of federal prosecutors.
"President Bush is to be congratulated on exercising executive
privilege in response to congressional suppoenas seeking
confidential communications between the president and the Justice
Department.
"This action is absolutely necessary to preserve the
constitutional separation of powers and to protect the president's
prerogatives from infringement by Congress.
"This is not a partisan matter. In the past, President Bush
exercized executive privilege to protect records of the Clinton
administration. It is important that each president preserve the
constitutional framework established by the Founders, so that no
one branch is able to encroach on the authority of the others.
"In taking this action today, the president has fulfilled his
responsibility to faithfully execute the supreme law of our
nation."