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GAO to Sue Cheney on Documents
Wednesday, January 30, 2002
By Tom Curry
MSNBC

NBC's Campbell Brown reports on the likely court battle between President Bush and the GAO.
Photo Credit: F. Lee, Fox News Sunday, via AP.

“Future vice presidents, for example, would be in a situation where any time they meet with somebody, they have to call Henry Waxman to tell him who they met with,” Cheney said. He added that the energy task force gave Enron no special favors.

Launching a landmark court battle, the General Accounting Office said Wednesday it will sue Vice President Dick Cheney to obtain a list of the people his energy task force conferred with last year. The investigative arm of Congress, the GAO is acting at the behest of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who wants to see if the now-bankrupt Enron Corp. got the task force to tailor its recommendations to suit the energy trading firm.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the GAO, said, “all of our attempts to reach a reasoned and reasonable accommodation, including reducing the scope of our request, have been rebuffed.”

He contended that “failure to provide the information we are seeking serves to undercut the important principles of transparency and accountability in government.”

Walker noted, “This will be the first time that GAO has filed suit to enforce our access rights against a federal official. We hope it is the last time that we will have to do so.”

According to Catholic University political scientist Mark Rozell, a leading expert on battles between Congress and the president, the courts have never ruled in a non-criminal case such as this one, where members of Congress have sought presidential documents.

Such disputes have always been settled out of court or have ended with the president simply refusing to turn over the documents Congress has requested.

Also:
Battle Over Confidentiality
Dangerous Precedent?
Catering to Enron?
(More: MSNBC News Source)
2002 © MSNBC.com.

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