Larry says: COURT: JUDICIAL WATCH LAWSUIT CAN PROCEED CONCERNING ENERGY TASK FORCE MEETINGS BUSH ADMINISTRATION LOSES COURT EFFORT TO DISMISS LAWSUIT
But the article says:
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Thu May 23, 6:16 PM ET By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit seeking records of the White House energy task force and will allow preliminary fact-finding in the case despite U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) objections.
The White House is asserting its right to seek confidential advice in battling a string of lawsuits and congressional requests for information on the task force and its contacts with now-bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp., a top Bush campaign donor. On Wednesday, a Senate panel subpoenaed records of contacts between the White House and Enron, including those on energy policy, and the White House handed over some information revealing dozens of contacts. But the lawsuit U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan refused to dismiss goes beyond demands for information on connections to Enron, which imploded last year amid revelations about losses from off-the-books partnerships. Filed by Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm, and later joined by the environmental group the Sierra Club (news - web sites), the lawsuit seeks all records of the Cheney task force in an effort to find out what influence other energy companies -- as well as Enron and its former chief Kenneth Lay -- had on policy. Justice Department lawyers, arguing the case for the White House, told Sullivan that divulging the task force records would upset White House confidentiality. The federal law on advisory committees cited by the lawsuit "is not intended to intrude on day-to-day functioning of the president ... It can't justify the substantial intrusion into the president's communications," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Shannen Coffin told the court. Coffin also urged the judge not to allow pretrial evidence-gathering and fact-finding, saying this could in itself damage the government's case. "In this case, the plaintiff's end game is discovery. They want to know who met with the president," Coffin said. But Sullivan refused to throw out the case. "This case will go forward to discovery, and then the court will be in a better position to address the very complicated, interesting, constitutional arguments that exist in this case," he said. Sullivan did, however, say he would consider reviewing the discovery evidence himself before deciding what to make part of the case's public record. Cheney's energy task force produced a policy last May that called for more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear power program; environmentalists claim they were largely shut out of the policy-making. Sullivan, who in February directed the White House to preserve records from meetings of its energy task force, also said he would allow subpoenas to stop record destruction by people and organizations outside the government who may have papers related to the case. Sierra Club attorneys said they anticipated issuing about six such subpoenas. It was expected that Enron would be among the recipients. Thousands of the task force documents already have been released under other cases filed under the Freedom of Information Act. But they have come from government agencies and not the White House, and many are heavily redacted. Congress' watchdog, the General Accounting Office (news - web sites) is also seeking energy task force documents in a separate suit. The Justice Department has moved to dismiss that case as well, saying the GAO has overstepped its legal authority. |