Bush Team Thwarted in 2 Energy Panel Lawsuits

The Bush administration was thwarted on two fronts Thursday as it battled lawsuits seeking to pry secrets out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said, “I assume the government is stalling” in one case, and U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman scoffed at the administration’s argument that another case should be thrown out of court. Both suits were filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative group.

The White House is trying to avoid having to identify business executives and lobbyists the Cheney task force met with as the administration formulated its energy plan a year ago.

The judges’ comments follow criticism of the Bush administration by a third judge, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, who said the Energy Department is moving at a “glacial pace” in a lawsuit filed by an environmental group to produce documents on Cheney’s task force. Kessler ordered the department to release documents starting March 25. Documents the department withholds must be identified individually in a list to be made public by April 25, which would set the stage for a next round in the court battle.

At a court hearing Thursday, Justice Department lawyer Dan Bensing, citing timing issues, said Friedman should dismiss the Judicial Watch lawsuit seeking documents from all federal agencies that were members of Cheney’s task force.

“This is just gamesmanship,” Friedman said. In nine months, he said, the Bush administration’s Cabinet agencies have turned over almost no documents and are withholding tens of thousands of pages from public scrutiny.

Sullivan reluctantly gave the government seven more days to file written arguments on why the Cheney task force should be allowed to withhold all documents. The government had asked for 17 extra days.

A fourth lawsuit, seeking records filed by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also is pending.