The top aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove refused to answer at least a dozen questions from a Senate committee Thursday about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year, asserting -- as expected -- a claim of executive privilege by President Bush.Scott Jennings, who also is a special assistant to Bush, arrived at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with his attorney, Mark Paoletta, to avoid a contempt citation.
The panel had subpoenaed both Jennings and Rove, but Rove refused to show up, angering Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.
"I consider that blanket claim (of executive privilege) to be unsubstantiated," Leahy said he told Jennings before the meeting.
White House Counsel Fred Fielding had informed the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Rove, "as an immediate adviser to the president," can't be ordered to testify and was told not to attend.
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