HRES 530 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 530
Censuring George W. Bush.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 10, 2007
Mr. WEXLER (for himself, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. CLAY, Mr. COHEN, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. FARR, Mr. HALL of New York, Ms. HOOLEY, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. WELCH of Vermont, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. WU, and Mr. WYNN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
RESOLUTION
Censuring George W. Bush.
Whereas President George W. Bush has failed to comply with his obligations under Executive Order 12958 concerning the protection of classified national security information in that the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency operative was revealed to members of the media, and in June 2003, Bush Administration officials discussed with various reporters the identity of Ms. Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency operative;
Whereas on July 14, 2003, the name of Ms. Wilson and her status as a Central Intelligence Agency operative was revealed publicly in a newspaper column by Robert Novak, and on September 16, 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency advised the Department of Justice that Ms. Wilson's status as a covert operative was classified information and requested a Federal investigation;
Whereas knowingly leaking the identity of a covert agent is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (Public Law 97-200);
Whereas Arthur Brown, former Asian Division chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, stated that, `cover and tradecraft are the only forms of protection one has and to have that stripped away because of political scheming is the moral equivalent to exposing forward deployed military units';
Whereas Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis `Scooter' Libby, effectively stopped the investigation into this potentially grave national security crime by lying to Federal Bureau of Investigation investigators, and Mr. Libby's perjury shielded Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush from further inquiry;
Whereas on March 6, 2007, in United States District Court, a jury found Mr. Libby guilty on four counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation investigators regarding an investigation into the actions of the White House regarding leaking the identity of Ms. Wilson in retaliation for her husband's contention that the Bush Administration twisted intelligence facts to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq;
Whereas on June 5, 2007, Mr. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000;
Whereas President George W. Bush had appointed the Special Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, and nominated Judge Reggie Walton to his position on the U.S. District Court, both of whom were involved in the trial of Mr. Libby;
Whereas in February 2004, President George W. Bush stated that if anyone in his Administration `has violated [the] law, that person will be taken care of';
Whereas on July 2, 2007, President Bush commuted the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison; and
Whereas in commuting Mr. Libby's sentence, President Bush has finally and unalterably breached any remaining shred of trust that he had left with the American people and rewarded political loyalty while flouting the rule of law: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the United States Congress does hereby censure George W. Bush, President of the United States, and does condemn his decision to commute the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison, his unconscionable abuse of his authority with regard to the deceitful chain of events concerning the falsifying of intelligence on Iraqi nuclear capabilities and the exaggeration of the threat posed by Iraq, his involvement in the clear political retaliation against former Ambassador and Ms. Wilson, and his decision to reward the perjury of Mr. Libby, which effectively protected President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other Administration officials from further scrutiny.
U.S. Congress - Text of H.Res.530 as Introduced in House Censuring George W. Bush.
