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Judicial Watch Earns Key Victory Judges Criticize Administration, Order Release of Taskforce Docs Judicial Watch scored two major legal victories in its efforts to force the Administration to release documents to the American people with respect to its Energy Task Force meetings. On February 28, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan lambasted the Administration for employing stall tactics and refused the Justice Department’s request for more time to present its arguments. “I’m not going to grant any future extensions,” Judge Sullivan said according to the Associated Press. “The Department of Justice is the largest law firm in the world,” he said, adding that if they needed more lawyers to do the work, then “assign them to the case.” Judicial Watch is seeking all of the records, documents, notes and minutes of the Cheney Task Force under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The Administration refuses to comply because officials believe the information could be politically embarrassing. According to media interviews with task force members, 18 of the top 25 corporate contributors to the Republican Party advised the Vice President during energy policy meetings last year. Judge Sullivan set a new hearing for April 9. During a March 5th hearing in a related case, Justice Department lawyers attempted to have Judicial Watch’s lawsuit thrown out of court, claiming the suit was filed 12 days too early. “So what! This is just gamesmanship,” replied U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, who then ordered the release of thousands of documents from seven different government agencies. Judicial Watch had requested the documents almost one year ago with little to no cooperation from the Administration. For example, as of press time, the Office of Management Budget has identified 374 documents in its files related to the Task Force and has released just six of them. The Environmental Protection Agency alone is withholding 19,500 pages of documents. Judge Friedman set deadlines for the release of documents, ranging from March 25 to May 3. He also asked some agencies to explain why they believe some documents ought to be exempted from public scrutiny. A separate hearing will be scheduled for those documents in dispute. “The stone wall is beginning to crumble,” said JW Chairman Larry Klayman. “These rulings are victories for openness and honesty in government. JW simply wants to apply to the Energy Task Force the same laws that conservatives sought to apply to Hillary Clinton’s Health Care Task Force.” The General Accounting Office has filed a lawsuit of its own to try to force the Administration to disclose energy task force information. However, as Justice Department lawyers have indicated in court, JW’s lawsuit will likely “moot out” or render irrelevant the GAO’s lawsuit. Many documents thus far obtained by Judicial Watch can be accessed by the public through JW’s internet site, www.judicialwatch.org. NOTE: At press time, the Bush Administration was forced to provide over 11,000 more documents to JW, garnering huge media coverage. The documents showed “cozy connections” with energy and environmental lobbyists who donated heavily to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
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