White House Stonewall: Day 91
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White House Stonewall: Day 91
A Daily Review of the White House's Attempts to Keep America
From Learning Their Secrets
Friday, May 24, 2002
The White House Stonewall goes on, as the Bush administration
continues to deny the non-partisan General Accounting Office's request
for information on who the White House Energy Task Force met with
while formulating national energy policy. What are they trying to hide?
The Latest News on the White House Stonewall
Limited Amount of Enron Communications Turned Over By White
House*
The proverbial tip of the Enron iceberg was revealed by the Bush
administration on Wednesday night when White House Counsel Alberto
Gonzales turned over a limited list of communications between Enron
and the White House to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In
addition to proving that Enron had more communications with White
House officials than previously disclosed, the seven-page document
outlined more of the details behind meetings Enron officials had with
such top Bush administration officials as National Economic Council
head Lawrence Lindsey and Bush senior adviser Karl Rove. According
to today's Washington Post, "Yesterday, congressional investigators
seized on sections showing that the administration was clearly worried
about the potential impact of Enron's collapse on the fragile post-Sept.
11 economy. Officials launched a series of previously undisclosed
e-mail and conference call consultations that included the Council of
Economic Advisers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Until now, administration
officials had portrayed Enron's financial troubles as a distant and even
technical matter that was not their immediate concern. ... In fact, eyes
throughout the White House had focused on Enron since President
Bush's inauguration." While the White House provided some details
about their contacts with Enron officials, Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman said that more information
remains within the highly secretive Bush administration. "In many
cases, they've left out details the committee asked for, such as who
attended meetings or took part in communications and when all of the
communications occurred," Lieberman said.
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Judge Ruled Against Bush Motion to Dismiss Case on Energy Task
Force Docs*
Another setback was dealt to one of the Bush administration's many
stonewalls yesterday, when a federal judge ruled against a motion by
the Bush administration to stop a lawsuit on the Cheney energy task
force documents. The U.S. Justice Department, citing a supposed
executive right to confidentiality, asked U.S. District Judge Emmet
Sullivan to dismiss the lawsuit brought forth by two non-profit
organizations. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Shannen Coffin
claimed that federal law on advisory committees, "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." Sullivan
rebutted the arguments by the Justice Department and said, "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." Under court order, some federal
agencies have already provided documents related to the energy task
force, but most were heavily redacted and provided very little insight on
how the Bush administration garnered it's energy policy.
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