White House Counsel Refuses Solyndra Subpoena

The White House is fighting back over a House panel's subpoena of all Solyndra documents, refusing to comply and accusing the subpoena of being "driven more by partisan politics than a legitimate effort to conduct a responsible investigation," reports CNN. The "extremely broad request" is "a significant intrusion on executive branch interests," said White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. She said it needed to be narrowed down significantly.

Ruemmler also complained that the subcommittee's subpoena came after it rejected a White House counterproposal "without explaining how it fell short of your legitimate oversight purposes." Republicans, however, blamed the Obama administration for the subpoena, saying it could have been avoided with better cooperation. "What is the West Wing trying to hide?" asked Michigan Rep. Fred Upton. "We owe it to American taxpayers to find out." (More Solyndra stories.)