Rove, Miers to testify about attorney firings

WASHINGTON – Former top Bush aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers have agreed to testify behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee about the sudden firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

The arrangement, announced Wednesday, is a compromise in the long-running constitutional battle between Democrats and the Bush administration, and is expected to spare the Obama White House from having to get involved.

While the testimony will be under “penalty of perjury,” as House Democrats demanded, Miers and Rove won’t have to answer the committee’s questions in an open hearing.

No date for the testimony was announced.

The committee has reserved the right to require public testimony from Rove and Miers.

Democrats hope Miers and Rove will answer questions about the Bush White House’s role in the firings, and whether prosecutors were improperly targeted for bucking the administration.

“This is a victory for the separation of powers and congressional oversight,” said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “It is also a vindication of the search for truth.”