Bush: SEC Probe Will Clear Cheney
Halliburton Changed Accounting Practices
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 18, 2002; Page A18
President Bush predicted yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission will find that Vice President Cheney did nothing wrong when he was chairman of Halliburton Co., which is being investigated for its accounting practices.
Bush was asked twice about Halliburton during a news conference with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, at a time when the White House is trying to convince investors and traders that it will aggressively prosecute accounting fraud. The SEC is looking into a change that Halliburton, a Dallas-based oil services firm, made in its accounting practices when Cheney was in charge.
"I've got great confidence in the vice president -- doing a heck of a good job," Bush said. "When I picked him, I knew he was a fine business leader and a fine experienced man. And he's doing a great job."
Asked if he is confident the SEC will find Cheney did nothing wrong while at Halliburton, Bush said, "Yes, I am." Bush said the investigation will run its course "and the facts will come out at some point in time."
The first question Bush was asked at the East Room news conference was about a closed SEC investigation into a large sale he made of stock in Texas-based Harken Energy Corp. in 1990, when he was on the board and had access to some financial data not available to other investors. Investigators decided not to pursue an insider trading case against Bush.
A growing chorus of Democrats has said Bush should call on the SEC to release the file on the investigation, and SEC Chairman Harvey L. Pitt said Sunday that he would do so if the president asked him. Bush indicated yesterday that he has no intention of doing so. "The SEC, as a result of Freedom of Information [Act] requests, has released documents, and the key document said there is no case," he said. "It was fully investigated by career investigators."
Bush then pivoted to the economy. "The key thing for the American people is to realize that the fundamentals for economic vitality and growth are there: low interest rates, good monetary policy, productivity increases, economic vitality and growth in the first quarter," he said.
Later, while declaiming on NATO expansion, Bush made sport of critics who suggest he may not fully grasp the fine points of international affairs. "I think that's an important nuance, as we say in foreign policy," he said with a smile. "I think that's the word, isn't it? 'Nuance'?"
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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