The Bush administration will not let Education Department investigators interview current and former White House officials about the hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams, Rep. George Miller asserts.

Legally, the White House is on solid ground, according to Alan Morrison, a former U.S. attorney and a law professor at Stanford University. “The inspector general has no right to tell anyone outside Education that they have to talk to him,” he told USA Today. However, there is apparently no legal reason why President Bush cannot order White House officials to speak to the investigators. If President Bush will not do so, he should explain why.

Update: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings starts pointing fingers.