JUDICIAL WATCH LAWSUIT AGAINST ENERGY TASK FORCE WELL UNDER WAY
DISMISSAL OF GAO CASE AGAINST CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE HAS NO EFFECT ON SEPARATE JUDICIAL WATCH LAWSUIT
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, reported today that a federal court ruling that the General Accounting Office (GAO) has no standing to sue Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force does not effect Judicial Watch’s ongoing lawsuit against the Task Force. Unlike the GAO lawsuit, Judicial Watch’s legal action survived a motion to dismiss and is in the midst of discovery.
The Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan has already ruled in the Judicial Watch lawsuit 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. In doing so, the Court ruled that Vice President Cheney must comply with the law “like everyone has to do.” This discovery ruling is now on appeal.
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. The GAO was proceeding under its inherent powers as an investigative arm of Congress, but a court ruled today that it had no authority to act on its own and dismissed the case before discovery could begin. Judicial Watch has already received thousands of documents under discovery.
“Judicial Watch’s lawsuit is separate and apart from the GAO lawsuit. The Vice President may not have to give documents about his Energy Task Force to the GAO any time soon. But, as we have won virtually every legal battle against the Vice President thus far, we are confident that Judicial Watch will extract these secreted Energy Task Force documents through our lawsuit,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
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