(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, reported that Howard Dean yesterday misrepresented his own legal position in the ongoing Judicial Watch lawsuit against him and the State of Vermont over his continued refusal to release public records from his tenure as Vermont governor. During yesterday’s Democratic debate in Iowa, Dean responded to a challenge to release his gubernatorial records with the following statement:

What we have done is we have stepped aside. We have turned everything over to the attorney general of the state of Vermont. And the attorney general of the state of Vermont will go to court, and a judge will look over every document in our records. And they are free to release whatever they'd like, and that's fine with me.

This statement by Howard Dean is incorrect and misleading is several respects:

• Howard Dean has not “stepped aside” in the lawsuit. He continues to be a party to the case and is represented “in his capacity as former Governor of Vermont” by taxpayer-financed lawyers in State of Vermont’s Attorney General’s office.
  
  
• Howard Dean, not the State of Vermont, is asserting blanket executive privilege, which is preventing the documents at issue from being released.
  
  
• Howard Dean’s taxpayer-funded lawyers are not asking a judge to review and release the records. Howard Dean, through his lawyers, is asking the court in Vermont to not release any records, as he asserts that the agreement placing them under seal for 10 years is valid. Howard Dean is asking that the case be thrown out of court, which would prevent any records from being reviewed or released.

Dean cited his presidential run as the basis for denying the public access to these government records, reportedly telling Vermont Public Radio and other news organizations, “Well, there are future political considerations. We didn’t want anything embarrassing appearing in the papers at a critical time in any future endeavor.” Judicial Watch uncovered, through a public records request, that, in negotiating the agreement to seal the records, lawyers for Dean and Vermont state officials repeatedly discussed Dean’s presidential campaign as a basis for keeping the records secret.

“Howard Dean is being two-faced. He tells the public that he wants records released, but has his lawyers tell the court that he wants no records released. Howard Dean should come clean and release his gubernatorial records. And he should stop misleading the American people about his efforts to hide his record,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.