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Dear Mr. Fielding:
The White House is withholding hundreds of pages of documents about the activities of
convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the grounds that these documents involve internal White
House deliberations. Unless the President is prepared to assert executive privilege over these
documents, they should be turned over to the Oversight Committee without further delay.
When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January 2006, White House
officials stated emphatically that Mr. Abramoff was a virtual stranger to the White House.
President Bush said, "I don't know him."l White House spokesman Scott McClellan asserted
that "there were only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended, then a few staff-level
meetings on top of that."" Through a spokesperson, Karl Rove, then Senior Advisor to the
President, said, "Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. ... Since
then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance." Ken Mehlman, the former Director of
the White House Office of Political Affairs, said: "Well, Abramoff is someone who we don't
know a lot about. ... We know what we read in the paper."
The Committee's subsequent review of thousands of documents obtained from Mr.
Abramoff's former firm, Greenberg Traurig, raised questions about these White House
statements. According to the Greenberg Traurig documents, which were summarized in a
bipartisan staff report released last year, Mr. Abramoff and his associates had hundreds of
lobbying contacts with White House officials, billed clients more than $24,000 for meals and
drinks with White House officials, and provided White House officials with high-priced tickets
to sporting and entertainment events. The documents also described a series of actions by White
House officials that benefited Mr. Abramoff and his clients, as well as requests from Mr.
Abramoff that White House officials did not act upon.
In response to the Committee's bipartisan staff report, the White House emphasized that
the report was based solely on Mr. Abramoff's own records. White House spokesman Tony
Snow told reporters that it is "very difficult within the report itself to figure out how many actual
contacts there are" and that "there's a great deal of bewilderment about what's true and what's
false." At the same time the White House promised full public accountability. Mr. Snow stated
that the White House is "going to take a serious look at" the findings of the report, telling
reporters, "we want to find out what the truth is." When asked by a reporter if he would let the
public know "the full results of that review once you have it," he stated clearly, "you will know
what the results are."
This year, the Committee has sought to conclude its investigation by requesting (1)
depositions with White House officials and former Abramoff lobbyists and (2) documents from
the White House. The investigation has encountered obstacles because four witnesses, including
individuals who worked in the White House, have raised Fifth Amendment concerns.
Despite the refusal of key witnesses to provide testimony, the Committee has learned that
some senior White House officials had regular contact with Mr. Abramoff. Former White House
political director Matt Schlapp cooperated with the Committee's investigation and provided
voluntary testimony in a deposition. Mr. Schlapp estimated that he had "monthly" contact with
Jack Abramoff on subjects that often involved official government business. He also told the
Committee that Mr. Abramoff and his associates "had many friends in the administration"; that
Mr. Abramoff was regarded as a "point of information" because of "his knowledge and his
experience and his judgment on issues surrounding politics and policy and how the town works";
and that Mr. Abramoff's lobbying team was "viewed by many as a very respected lobbying
team."
In response to the Committee's document request, the White House produced
approximately 3,700 pages of documents. These documents generally involve communications
between White House officials and Mr. Abramoff or members of his lobbying team. The White
House refused, however, to produce over 600 pages of documents relating to Mr. Abramoff
because they "contain internal deliberations among White House employees, or that otherwise
implicate Executive Branch prerogatives." The White House also made a number of redactions
in the pages produced to the Committee. Given the prior statements by White House officials, it
is surprising that there would be this volume of documents of internal deliberations involving
Mr. Abramoff.
The withholding and redacting of documents that describe internal White House
deliberations relating to Mr. Abramoff is not appropriate. As you know, the Committee takes the
position that responsive documents that are relevant to the Committee's investigation cannot be
withheld unless the President makes a valid assertion of executive privilege, No such assertion
has been made in this case. Therefore, I request that you provide these documents to the
Committee by November 6,2007.
Altenatively, in an effort to accommodate your concerns, you may make the documents
available to the Committee staff for a review to assess whether the documents are needed for the
Committee's investigation. A process like this worked well in resolving a similar dispute that
arose during the Committee's investigation into the friendly fire death of Corporal Patrick
Tillman. If you would like to pursue this alternative, the staff review should occur before the
close of business on November 6.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight
committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in
House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information about how to
respond to the Committee's request.
I would appreciate your cooperation with this request. If you have any questions about
this request, please contact me or ask your staff to contact Kristin Amerling with the Committee
staff at ...
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Chairman
Enclosure
cc: Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member
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