WASHINGTON, July 25: A key US congressional committee on Wednesday voted to file rare contempt of Congress citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former legal counsel Harriet Miers.

The move significantly raised the stakes in a legal row between lawmakers and President George W. Bush over the firings of a group of at least eight federal prosecutors. Critics say the lawyers were sacked for political reasons.

Members of the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 to pass the contempt citations to the full House.

The controversy escalated after Bolten and Miers refused to comply with subpoenas filed by the committee to testify about the affair, after Bush invoked executive privilege.

If the full House, as expected, also endorses the citations, Bush's right to apply the legal doctrine under which the president can refuse to produce certain documents and testimony to Congress, could land in the courts.

Committee chairman John Conyers said he did not seek the citations lightly but felt he needed to “protect our constitutional prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government.” But Republicans said the White House had done nothing wrong in firing the attorneys and said Democrats fired by hatred for Bush were on a partisan witchhunt.—AFP