THE US:Democrats in Congress have escalated their dispute with President Bush over the firing last year of nine federal prosecutors by ordering the president's chief of staff to hand over documents and demanding that two former White House officials should testify before committees investigating the sackings.
The House Judiciary Committee sent a subpoena to White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten for documents related to the firings and subpoenaed former White House counsel Harriet Miers to testify before a sub-committee next month. The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former White House aide Sara Taylor to testify on July 11th and sent its own subpoena to Mr Bolten, ordering him to hand over the documents by June 28th.
Until now, Democrats had confined themselves to investigating current and former Justice Department officials and documents and the latest move is likely to trigger a legal battle over the limits of executive privilege.
"Let me be clear: This subpoena is not a request, it is a demand on behalf of the American people for the White House to make available the documents and individuals we are requesting to help us answer the questions that remain," said House Judiciary chairman John Conyers.
Democrats believe that the nine prosecutors were fired because they were either involved in prosecutions damaging to Republicans or not pursuing cases that could harm Democrats in advance of last November's congressional elections.
The president has insisted that the firings were appropriate, pointing out that the prosecutors were political appointees. Mr Bush has offered to give Democrats copies of communications between the White House and the Justice Department or third parties, but not internal White House communications.
In a letter to leading Democrats last week, White House counsel Fred Fielding urged them to negotiate a compromise on access to information.
"It is our strong hope that the committees will not feel compelled to elevate the stakes by pursuing the path of subpoenas and compulsory process referred to in your recent letters, which will only prolong this debate," he said.
The White House said it was studying the subpoenas and would consider how to respond, but did not immediately say if the president would go to court to prevent his officials from testifying.