(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that a federal judge ordered the release of thousands of additional Energy Task Force documents. The ruling comes in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit filed by Judicial Watch concerning the Energy Task Force. Judicial Watch has been seeking these documents under FOIA since April 19, 2001 and has only received a “trickle” of documents in response. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to compel a complete response on May 9, 2001. In his ruling today, Judge Paul L. Friedman rejected Bush Administration attempts to have the Judicial Watch lawsuit thrown out on technical grounds.

The lawsuit names as defendants the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Treasury and six other Bush Administration agencies whose representatives served on Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force. The Court’s ruling, which goes far beyond Judge Gladys Kessler’s recent order concerning the Energy Department, sets out a timeline for document production and, as importantly, for explanations as to why certain documents are being withheld from public scrutiny. The Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, is withholding over 19,000 pages from public view, citing a “deliberative process” exemption under FOIA. Most of the documents must be released to Judicial Watch by March 25, with others to be released by May 3. A copy of the court’s ruling is available at the Judicial Watch Internet site by clicking here (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

This lawsuit complements a separate Judicial Watch lawsuit, before Judge Emmet Sullivan, against the Vice President and the Task Force seeking to apply the open meetings law known as the Federal Advisory Committee Act to the Cheney Task Force directly.

“The stone wall is beginning to crumble. The Court’s ruling is a victory for openness in government and defeat to the Bush Administration’s efforts to delay release of these Energy Task Force documents,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.