Published on Friday, December 14, 2001 in the Boston Globe 
         Bush Halts Inquiry of FBI and Stirs Up a
         Firestorm 
         by Glen Johnson
          
         WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday invoked executive privilege to block a
         congressional subpoena exploring abuses in the Boston FBI office, prompting the
         chairman of a House committee to lambaste his fellow Republicans and triggering
         what one congressman said is the start of ''a constitutional confrontation.'' 

         ''You tell the president
         there's going to be war
         between the president and
         this committee,'' Dan
         Burton, the Indiana
         Republican who heads the
         House Government Reform
         Committee, told a Justice
         Department official during
         what was supposed to be a
         routine prehearing
         handshake. 

         ''His dad was at a 90
         percent approval rating and
         he lost, and the same thing
         can happen to him,'' Burton
         added, jabbing his finger
         and glaring at Carl Thorsen,
         a deputy assistant attorney
         general who was
         attempting to introduce a superior who was testifying.

         ''We've got a dictatorial president and a Justice Department that does not want
         Congress involved. ... Your guy's acting like he's king.''

         The searing tone continued for more than four hours from Republicans and
         Democrats, liberals and conservatives. All objected to the order Bush signed
         Wednesday and made public yesterday. It claimed executive privilege in refusing to
         hand over prosecutors' memos in criminal cases, including an investigation of
         campaign-finance abuses, saying doing so ''would be contrary to the national
         interest.''

         Committee members said the order's sweeping language created a shift in
         presidential policy and practices dating back to the Harding administration. They
         complained also that it followed a pattern in which the Bush administration has
         limited access to presidential historical records, refused to give Congress
         documents about the vice president's energy task force, and unilaterally announced
         plans for military commissions that would try suspected terrorists in secret.

         Representative William D. Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat and former district
         attorney, said: ''This is the beginning of a constitutional confrontation. In a short
         period of time, this Department of Justice has manifested tendencies that were of
         concern to Senate members during the confirmation hearings for John Ashcroft as
         attorney general.''

         The Government Reform Committee is investigating the FBI's use of confidential
         informants while the bureau investigated New England organized crime activities.

         The committee seeks information on deals FBI officials struck with suspected
         murderers Stephen ''the Rifleman'' Flemmi and James ''Whitey'' Bulger. 

         It is also exploring what FBI officials, including former director J. Edgar Hoover,
         knew about the innocence of Joseph Salvati of Massachusetts. Salvati spent 30
         years in prison for the 1965 murder of Edward ''Teddy'' Deegan in Chelsea, but the
         Governor's Council commuted his sentence in 1997. His conviction was overturned
         in January after a judge concluded that FBI agents hid testimony that would have
         cleared Salvati because they wanted to protect an informant.

         ''The federal government wanted Joe Salvati to die in jail because dead men don't tell
         tales,'' said Salvati's lawyer, Victor J. Garo, at the hearing yesterday.

         In buttressing the executive order, Michael E. Horowitz, chief of staff for the Justice
         Department's criminal division, told the committee that providing documents about
         prosecutorial decision-making could have a ''chilling effect'' on the advice that
         lower-level attorneys may be willing to provide to top prosecutors.

         White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Ronald Reagan invoked such a privilege
         three times, while Bill Clinton did so on four occasions. Forms of privilege were also
         claimed in the Nixon administration during the Watergate investigation. Fleischer
         said the Justice Department has already turned over 3,500 pages to Burton's
         committee, although members complained that many were heavily redacted.

         The Justice Department offered to provide summaries of 20 documents it believes
         would be covered by the subpoena.

         Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat from Newton, said he and Burton, a
         conservative, had sometimes disagreed on the committee's inquiries into the Clinton
         administration. He said the chairman's strong words for his fellow Republicans
         showed he had not merely been partisan.

         Turning to Horowitz, Frank asked why the Bush administration might cover up
         mistakes made in a previous administration. ''I don't know what bureaucratic reflex
         drives people to do this,'' the congressman said.

                      © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company