Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

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."