Report: Bush orders Rove not to testify

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President George W. Bush has ordered former adviser Karl Rove not to testify before Congress, Newsweek reported Thursday.

The order came Jan. 16, four days before Bush left office, the newsmagazine said, in a letter from former White House Counsel Fred Fielding to Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a subpoena Monday intended to compel Rove to testify about his role in the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration, as well as the Justice Department's prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Newsweek said Fielding instructed Luskin that Rove "should not appear before Congress" or turn over documents having to do with his White House service because Bush claims executive privilege considerations bar testimony by Rove -- even beyond Bush's term in office.

Fielding sent a similar letter to a lawyer for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers. The letter said Miers has "absolute immunity" from testifying before Congress about her work at the White House.

Attorneys for the House of Representatives are challenging the assertion in court.

Rove refused to testify at the House and Senate in 2007 on the dismissal of the federal prosecutors.

Conyers has suggested Rove was involved in the prosecution of Siegelman on corruption charges, and that the prosecution was politically motivated.