Lieberman Warns White House

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said Friday he’ll try to subpoena the White House for information on staff contacts with Enron Corp. officials unless the administration promises to provide the material by the end of the month.

It would be the first subpoena to the Bush White House, though the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm, already has sued Vice President Dick Cheney to force release of the names of Enron and other industry figures who met last year with his energy task force.

White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales said Friday that the administration was cooperating and would continue to cooperate with the inquiry of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is headed by Lieberman.

“I’m still optimistic that we can avoid” a subpoena, Gonzales told reporters.

Still, he said, the White House cannot commit to providing everything the panel is seeking because it doesn’t fully understand the scope and details of its request.

About 2,000 people work in President Bush’s executive office, and most of them do not hold positions that would involve contact with Enron executives, Gonzales said.

“If Ken Lay’s going to call the White House, he’s going to call someone pretty senior,” he said, referring to the former Enron chairman who was one of Bush’s biggest campaign contributors.

In response to Lieberman’s request, Gonzales on April 29 asked 204 White House staffers to fill out a questionnaire.

A White House official said Friday evening that the staff had offered to give the questionnaire to a wider group of people if that would settle the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lieberman has been in a push-and-pull with the White House since requesting the information in late March as part of the panel’s Enron investigation.

In a letter to Gonzales, Lieberman wrote, “More than seven weeks have passed ... and the committee has received virtually no information from you.”

He said the only material the White House had provided was copies of letters responding to other congressional inquiries and a transcript of a Bush news conference.

In contrast, Lieberman said, the federal agencies from which the committee had asked for information--including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Labor Department--had provided “detailed responses” within three to four weeks.

Lieberman said he would ask his committee on Wednesday to vote on authorizing a subpoena unless Gonzales assures the panel he will take steps to broaden the search for information and to provide the material by the end of May.

Gonzales said he was surprised and disappointed by Lieberman’s subpoena threat.

“We feel that we have been responsive. We are working to be responsive,” he said at the White House. He said his office would be “as cooperative as we feel we can be.”

Houston-based Enron was among Bush’s biggest campaign contributors.

The administration disclosed in January that Lay made a series of telephone calls to members of the Bush Cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans, as the company spiraled toward collapse last fall.

The energy-trading company entered the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history on Dec. 2.

The Senate panel has been looking into why federal regulators did not raise warning flags about Enron’s questionable business practices and intervene.