Cheney Lawyer Admits VP's Office Has Not Searched For
Documents Despite Months Of Litigation - Judge Calls Revelation 'Startling'
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group
that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, reported today
that a federal court ruled that Vice President Cheney and The Bush White
House must produce documents about his Energy Task Force. The Honorable
Emmet G. Sullivan had ruled that the Vice President was required to produce
information concerning into the identities of Task Force participants,
how it operated, and the role of the Vice President in the Task Force.
Non-privileged documents must be made public by November 5, 2002. Judge
Sullivan this morning rejected motions by the government lawyers for the
Vice President requesting that his office be exempted from discovery. In
doing so, the Court ruled that Vice President Cheney must comply with the
law "like everyone has to do." Judicial Watch has accused the
Bush Administration of delaying the release of these documents for "delays
sake," and indeed Vice President Cheney's government lawyers were
forced to admit they would seek an appeal of the court's ruling, which
would push off the release of the disputed documents until after the November
elections.
Judicial Watch was forced to file a lawsuit last year under the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (open meetings law) after it was rebuffed in its
requests for information on the Task Force by Vice President Cheney. Several
months later, the Energy Task Force was also sued by the Sierra Club, which
is now a co-plaintiff in Judicial Watch's lawsuit.
And in what Judge Sullivan called a "startling revelation," Justice
Department attorney Shannon Coffin today admitted, after well over a year
of litigating that the documents were too sensitive to be released, that
no one had actually reviewed documents in the Vice President's office concerning
the Task Force. Coffin later tried to back away from his statement, yet
confessed at the end of this morning's court hearing that the review had
not been completed.
"The Court's ruling is a victory for openness in government. And for
the Vice President to cite executive privilege and 'constitutional' concerns
over documents no one has yet examined shows that the arrogance and bad
faith stonewalling of the Bush Administration has risen to new heights.
Their gamesmanship must end," stated Judicial Watch President Tom
Fitton.
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