Conyers: "We came very close to removal proceedings on the president (Bush)" [View All]

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http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21372

WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. says he is not ready to “move on” and shrug off the alleged constitutional violations of the Bush administration.

“We’ve come out of a horrible period,” Conyers said in a keynote address before the 11th annual National Freedom of Information Day Conference at the Newseum in D.C. March 13. “This is going to be examined for quite a while.”

The Michigan Democrat pointed to a lengthy report issued in January by his committee that cataloged what Conyers characterized as the misdeeds of President George W. Bush’s tenure, ranging from the “contrived” war in Iraq to the politicization of the Justice Department. In a foreword to the report, Conyers referred to Bush and then-Vice President Dick Cheney when he wrote, “I have never wavered in my belief that this President and Vice-President are among the most impeachable officials in our Nation’s history, and the more we learn the truer that becomes.”

In his talk before FOI advocates, Conyers repeated that view, stating, “We came very close to removal proceedings on the president on a large number of counts.”

Conyers said his investigation of the Bush administration would include deposition testimony from former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers about alleged political firings of U.S. attorneys. Under an agreement reached earlier this month, claims of executive privilege by the two will be “significantly limited.”