- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
judicial watchdog group asked a U.S. judge on Wednesday to hold the Bush
administration in contempt of court for refusing to produce White House
energy policy documents, but the judge postponed a decision.
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- U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said he wanted
to grapple with other complex issues in the case brought by Judicial Watch
before deciding whether sanctions were appropriate. He said he would rule
on some other issues on Nov. 26, but did not say when he would decide on
the contempt motion.
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- Judicial Watch counsel Larry Klayman argued that Vice
President Dick Cheney and other officials of the energy task force he headed
last year should be found in contempt of court because they had not fully
complied with Sullivan's orders to produce documents from the task force's
meetings.
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- Judicial Watch and the environmental group Sierra Club
are seeking the task force records to find out what influence energy companies,
including the bankrupt Enron Corp., had on the policy it developed.
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- The administration has produced thousands of documents
from various government agencies that were involved in the task force,
but none relating to Cheney and three senior White House advisers. Last
month, Sullivan ordered the administration to produce the White House documents
or submit a detailed explanation of what documents they were withholding
and why.
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- The government is appealing this order and is seeking
Sullivan's approval to go ahead with the appeal even though the entire
Judicial Watch case is not finished. Sullivan said on Wednesday that he
was inclined to deny the request, but postponed that decision until Nov.
26.
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- The administration could also pursue its appeal using
another legal avenue called a writ of mandamus, but legal experts consider
this a long shot.
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- Klayman noted the lawsuit was filed more than a year
ago and said the government was trying to delay the case as long as possible.
"Because your honor is good natured ... they think they can get away
with almost anything," he told the judge.
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- But Justice Department Attorney Shannen Coffin said the
government had been "acting in good faith."
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- Cheney's energy task force produced a policy paper in
May 2001 that called for more oil and gas drilling and a revived nuclear
power program. Environmentalists say they were largely shut out of the
policy-making.
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- The General Accounting Office also filed suit in February
demanding that Cheney hand over a list of energy industry executives who
were consulted as the policy was drafted last year. Arguments were heard
in that case in September before U.S. District Court Judge John Bates,
but he has not ruled.
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