"When it comes to these kinds of transactions, (congressmen are)no different than anybody else," Barr maintained in a confrontationbetween Congress and the Bush administration.
Retired federal Judge Malcolm Wilkey, who was appointed March 20by Barr to investigate possible criminal violations at the Housebank, last week subpoenaed all bank records, not just those of the325 current and former House members who wrote penalty-freeoverdrafts at their now-closed bank. About 170 lawmakers had nooverdrafts at the bank.
If the House refuses to comply, Wilkey could seek a court orderto have the subpoenas enforced or ask for a contempt citation. TheHouse also could go to court to seek to have the subpoenas quashed.
House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) has said that, inresponse to a request for the records, he and House Minority LeaderRobert H. Michel (R-Ill.) wrote Wilkey last week that the Houseparliamentarian determined that House rules did not allow them tocomply with a request for the records. The letter did not explainwhy.
"I added that, whatever the rules might dictate, I could not inconscience comply with the sweeping and unprecedented scope of hisdocumentary request," Foley said.
The next day, Wilkey subpoenaed the records. He said in aletter to Foley, "There is no other source which contains nearly ascomplete a picture of the bank's operations, which is first priorityand fundamental to our inquiry."
Wilkey promised to return data from the accounts of the 170members who did not write overdrafts.
On Friday, Foley sent a letter to House members, complainingthat, rather than continue to negotiate over how to provide access tothe records of members who had overdrafts without infringing onprivacy rights, Wilkey went forward with the subpoenas.
The letters capped a month of high-level negotiations overWilkey's investigation, including a meeting among Foley, Wilkey andBarr.
Foley has indicated he plans to discuss the matter with othercongressional leaders when they return from a break this week.
Contributing: Baltimore Sun
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