Re: Energy Task Force Records...article below....Were the Clinton Medical Task Force records ever released???? Don't recall they ever were!!!!
Probe Raises Stakes on Energy Task Force Records
Some Bush Advisers Favor Releasing Information to Limit Damage From Enron Investigation
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 17, 2002; Page A07
The Enron bankruptcy investigation has increased pressure on the Bush White House to release records of the task force that drafted its energy policy last year, leading some Bush aides to reconsider their long-held view that providing such information would compromise the constitutional balance of power.
White House officials continue to believe there is no legal basis for Congress to demand information about meetings of the task force with business executives, arguing that doing so would inhibit the administration's ability to gather candid advice. But they also are aware that their reluctance to relinquish the records -- which they recently said include six meetings with Enron officials -- is perpetuating a link between the White House and the Enron scandal by creating the appearance of a coverup.
The squabble over the task force's records is at the leading edge of a larger effort taking shape in Congress to demand more -- perhaps all -- records of contact between the administration and Enron. Yesterday, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called such a general request a "fishing expedition" and said the White House would not catalogue its contacts with Enron unless there is a charge of administration wrongdoing. "To date, nobody has made any allegations of wrongdoing or has even any suggestions of them," he said.
On the subject of the task force records, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), in a letter yesterday to Vice President Cheney, said he has not made allegations because he does not want to "accuse first and investigate later." But he pointed to 17 provisions in President Bush's energy policy that would have benefited Enron. "This creates the unfortunate appearance that a large contributor received special access and obtained extraordinarily favorable results in the White House energy plan," Waxman wrote.
Though a number of Bush's political advisers inside and outside the White House say privately that they would prefer to release the task force information, "neither the president nor the [White House] counsel has come to that conclusion," said a top aide to Bush.
After reports that the administration's energy task force, chaired by Cheney, had been meeting in secret, House Democrats nine months ago asked the investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office, to obtain information about the task force's dealings with business executives and others outside the government. Cheney rejected various requests for information from the GAO, which has said it will decide in the next few weeks whether to take the unusual step of suing the administration.
Mary Matalin, a senior adviser to Cheney, said there has been no discussion of a change in position regarding the GAO request. "This is a critically important principle, not just for this administration but for future presidencies," she said. "The principle stands." Asked whether the position would change if congressional committees demanded the information, she said: "We haven't been asked so there's been no reason to think about anything but the current position."
The administration has sought on a number of fronts to protect the executive branch's power and privacy after years of investigations. But for the first time, the administration's desire for confidentiality has created the appearance that it could be concealing damaging information.
Now that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Enron and 10 congressional committees plan to conduct their own investigations, there are more calls for the administration to release the task force records and other records of interaction between Enron and the administration. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), chairman of a Senate subcommittee examining Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen, is likely to issue a letter supporting the GAO's demands for the task force records when he returns from a foreign trip next week.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" that the White House should release all records of contacts with Enron executives, such as e-mails and telephone calls, because the matter is "such a compelling issue now."
A senior Bush aide indicated there may be some White House flexibility if the requests for Enron contacts come from places other than the GAO, which is acting on a request from Waxman. Confidentiality "is an important principle we want to stand by, particularly with the GAO," the aide said.
Members of Congress and watchdog groups are seeking to learn whether Enron, a major contributor to Bush's presidential campaign, influenced the administration in five areas: Enron's solicitations of government help in the weeks before its bankruptcy; the administration's energy policy, which includes expansion of energy production and transmission; last fall's economic stimulus package, which included a tax break sought by Enron; Enron's influence on the selection of administration personnel; and benefits Enron received from the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
Enron contacted top officials in the Commerce and Treasury departments before it filed for bankruptcy court protection, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. was alerted. The administration consulted with Enron lenders but Bush officials said they decided not to take any action to aid Enron, which on Dec. 2 filed the largest corporate bankruptcy case in U.S. history.
Though Enron has extensive ties to Bush, it also had links to the Clinton administration, and it made a quarter of its political contributions to Democrats.
Even some natural allies of the administration say the White House should provide the information Congress seeks. "Now that this has become a much more important element of the legislative oversight process, it does reduce the claim for confidentiality," said Bruce Fein, a former official in the Reagan Justice Department and a Republican committee lawyer during the Iran-contra investigation. "I don't think it's useful to give up executive privilege for no reason, but because we have other elements such as the destruction of documents that play into a coverup [by Andersen], the White House should be Caesar's wife, above suspicion."
Conservative Larry Klayman, whose Judicial Watch frequently dogged the Clinton administration, filed a lawsuit this week under the Freedom of Information Act demanding details of contacts between Enron and the Bush administration. The group also has sued to obtain information about the energy task force's closed-door meetings.
"We want all the documents to see whether there was undue influence exerted on the Bush administration," Klayman said. "When you give that kind of money and when you find Kenneth Lay calling Cabinet secretaries and you find Ari Fleischer saying there was no contact with the White House and then you find out there was, you probably find out something was done for Enron -- if not an outright act, then forbearance."
Political strategists say the increased pressure on the White House to disclose contacts with Enron follows a traditional pattern: Political advisers favor the release of information to quell the controversy, while legal advisers resist the release. "My inclination is to get it out," said a top GOP strategist. "They could duke it out, but it won't be fun or easy. Over time, the PR and the political folks tend to win."
The administration has already found a way to relinquish information without sacrificing its constitutional power. Cheney's counsel, David Addington, on Jan. 3 released information to Waxman about six meetings between the task force and Enron but reserved "all legal authorities and privileges."
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