July 10, 2007

White House Aide Sara Taylor Will Appear

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Just got off the phone with a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Contrary to the White House diktat yesterday that it was citing executive privilege in denying requests from Congress for the testimony of even ex-White House officials, she says that former White House director of political affairs and Karl Rove aide Sara Taylor will appear before the committee tomorrow. What happened, I asked. “She’s under subpoena,” committee spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. Stay tuned.

Update: Muckraker Paul Kiel says likewise, House Judiciary committee chairman John Conyers is going to require former White House counsel Harriet Miers to show up at his committee and invoke privilege. He anticipates that Taylor plans to do the same thing.

Wednesday Morning Update: The AP says Taylor plans to follow White House direction to not answer questions about her role in the US attorney firings:

“While I may be unable to answer certain questions today, I will answer those questions if the courts rule that this committee’s need for the information outweighs the president’s assertion of executive privilege,” Sara M. Taylor, who left her White House job two months ago, said in remarks prepared for presentation to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

“Thank you for your understanding,” she added in the statement.

The Post reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee may not in fact be feeling so understanding:

A spokeswoman for Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said the panel has questions that will not fall under that restriction. But committee Democrats made clear that they will not be satisfied with that and will press the White House to drop its assertion of executive privilege. The Senate could cite Bush or Taylor or both for criminal contempt, which would send the matter into the courts.

“I hope Ms. Taylor chooses to reject the White House’s insistence that she carry out their stonewalling and, instead, works with us so that we can get to the bottom of what has gone on and gone wrong,” Leahy said in a statement last night.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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