(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, hailed the recent decision by the Vermont Supreme Court to hear arguments in the organization’s lawsuit against former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.  Judicial Watch brought the lawsuit to make public 145 boxes of records Mr. Dean ordered sealed for 10 years after he left office.

A state Superior Court judge a year ago ruled that Dean could not broadly assert executive privilege on the records.  The state’s attorney general appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.  Oral arguments in the case will be heard March 14 at the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vt.  (Once a year, the state Supreme Court conducts its business at the law school.)

Dean, who recently was chosen as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, cited his 2004 presidential run as the basis for denying the public access to government records from his 11 years as governor, reportedly telling Vermont Public Radio and other news organizations:  “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 found, 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.  Dean’s pollster, Paul Maslin, wrote an article for the May 2004 Atlantic Monthly magazine on the “implosion” of the former Vermont governor’s presidential bid, relating how Dean told his campaign staff in December 2003, referring to the records, that he would “rather end the campaign than have the world see everything.”  Dean said he was concerned about the privacy of his constituents, but according to Maslin, Dean was more concerned that the documents would show he insulted liberals and their special interest groups.

“Howard Dean needs to come clean with the people of Vermont and release these public documents,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Vermont law does not allow for the wholesale sealing of records related to the people’s business, regardless of whether they would hurt the presidential – or DNC chairmanship – aspirations of a former governor.”