Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire, March 27, 2007

Sheryl.

Q Dana, it would seem that on the issue of testimony interviews by Rove and others, you're at an impasse. The Judiciary Committee has sent Fred Fielding a letter formally rejecting the White House offer, and saying that it would like further negotiations. Is Fred Fielding preparing a response?

MS. PERINO: I'll check -- as far as I know -- and I saw him this morning -- I don't know of any negotiations that are ongoing. I will check to see if there have been any discussions. I know that Fred was willing to listen respectively and attentively to members, but that we felt that our offer was one that we would hope that they would see wisdom in accepting.

Q The Democrats seem to feel that the ball is in your court to respond to that letter.

MS. PERINO: The ball is on the fence.

Q Do you feel that the ball is in their court, and that theirs --

MS. PERINO: We do.

Q -- and theirs is the next move, and they can either accept or issue subpoenas?

MS. PERINO: Look, we -- I would say that they initially said that they wanted to issue subpoenas. We said that's not necessary. We said we will make these four individuals available to you to talk to in a way that's consistent with the President's prerogatives. And they decided not to take it.

However -- so they went ahead and they authorized subpoenas anyway. So they said they were going to do it; we said you didn't need to; they went ahead and did it, in terms of the authorization. And I haven't heard anything more about whether or not those subpoenas are forthcoming. But we believe that if they wanted to get to the facts of the matter, we have presented them a way to do that.

Q So whose is the next move?

MS. PERINO: I think it's Congress's.

John.

Q Dana, if Justice officials are taking the Fifth, does that put any pressure on you guys to possibly negotiate? Because Tony has been saying you can get everything you need from all the key players at Justice, and we're being extremely generous, as well.

MS. PERINO: Well, first of all, step back. You're saying if Justice Department officials, plural, are going to be taking the Fifth -- and I want to make it clear that there was one individual who, through her counsel, made a statement yesterday regarding that. I don't know of anybody else that has, but I am not in regular contact with them, and I'm not inquiring to their counsels of what they're going to do.

And I can see -- I can see your point, as to why someone might think that that we would want to change our negotiations stance. However, I think that lots of people can find lots of different reasons for us to change our negotiation stance, and I don't see any reason to at this point.

April.

Q Dana, is pleading the Fifth signifying that a crime has been committed?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think that's an unfortunate interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, which is available to all of us, that in our public -- in our judicial system, invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission of guilt. But I would refer you to her lawyer for anything more.