Boehner: Republicans to Challenge Obama's Executive Privilege in Civil Court

House Speaker John Boehner said today that Republicans are preparing to
file a civil suit in an attempt to gain access to more information
pertaining to the Justice Department's botched Fast & Furious cartel
gun tracking program.

The planned civil suit, which comes on the heels of a letter sent
by the Justice Department stating that the DOJ would not prosecute
Attorney General Eric Holder following a House vote to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress.

"It's not clear to me that the U.S. District Attorney will in fact, go
down that path. That's why we're going to file, in District Court, a
civil suit, over the issue of executive privilege," Boehner said on
CBS's "Face the Nation."

The Obama administration, in response to a request by Holder, asserted the right to executive privilege several weeks ago, in effect blocking Congressional access to documents pertaining the affair.

President George W. Bush

Dec. 2001 President George W. Bush first asserted executive privilege to deny disclosure of sought details regarding former Attorney General Janet Reno, the scandal involving Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) misuse of organized-crime informants James J. Bulger and Stephen Flemmi in Boston

2004 Bush invoked executive privilege "in substance" in refusing to disclose the details of Vice President Dick Cheney's
meetings with energy executives, which was not appealed by the GAO.

June 28, 2007, Bush invoked executive privilege in response to
congressional subpoenas requesting documents from former presidential
counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

July 9, 2007, Bush again invoked executive privilege to block a
congressional subpoena requiring the testimonies of Taylor and Miers.
Furthermore, White House Counsel Fred F. Fielding
refused to comply with a deadline set by the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee to explain its privilege claim, prove that the
president personally invoked it, and provide logs of which documents
were being withheld. On July 25, 2007, the House Judiciary Committee
voted to cite Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten for contempt of Congress

August 1, 2007, Bush invoked the privilege for the fourth time in little over a month, this time rejecting a subpoena for Karl Rove. The subpoena would have required the President's Senior Advisor to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a probe over fired federal prosecutors.

Just Sayin'