CHENEY ATTEMPTS TO DELAY CONSIDERATION OF JUDICIAL WATCH CASE CONCERNING ENERGY TASK FORCE
Effort Part of Stall Tactic to Try to Run Out Clock on Enron Scandal
Court Calls Hearing for Tomorrow At 11:00 A.M.
Press Conference To Follow on Courthouse Steps
Date: February 28, 2002 Time: 11:00 A.M. Place: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Courtroom 1 - Judge Emmet Sullivan
(Washington, D.C.). Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, today announced that the Court in its Cheney Energy Task Force litigation will hold a hearing tomorrow at the above time and place to rule upon the Bush-Cheney administration's request for a delay in the briefing schedule to determine the future course of case.
As widely reported, at a recent hearing, the Court told the Bush-Cheney administration that it had better take Judicial Watch's case seriously, and indicated that it did not buy the government's legal arguments. However, when the Bush-Cheney Justice Department asked for more time to rebrief its legal arguments, the Court granted the request, and set a hearing for April 9, 2002.
Now, the Bush-Cheney administration says that it needs more time, and Judicial Watch has opposed this. (See Plaintiff's Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Extension of Time to Respond to Amended Complaint by clicking here).
"The Bush-Cheney administration, likely knowing that the sought after documents contain information which would not be 'helpful', has borrowed the script of the Clinton administration and is trying to run out the clock on the still growing Enron scandal. Through continued delay, it hopes that by the time the documents are produced, the public will have grown weary of the Enron scandal. Judicial Watch will not allow for this, as the public has an unbridled right to know all of the facts now. Open government is honest government and the arrogance of the Bush-Cheney administration in trying to prevent transparency in government is based on an old world view that the sovereign should not be questioned, because the people are simply rabble," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
Another hearing is scheduled for later in the day on another case involving the Cheney Energy Task Force and the Enron scandal, this one before Judge Paul Friedman of the same Court. At issue are Energy Department documents. The hearing is set for 11:00 A.M. in courtroom 17.
