Vice President Dick Cheney and 13 other prominent members of the Bush administration have asked a federal court in Washington, DC, to dismiss lawsuits filed by Judicial Watch Inc., a public watchdog group, seeking documents related to the task force that crafted the national energy policy.

Judicial Watch brought the lawsuits after Cheney and the task force denied its requests for documents under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Cheney and administration officials are seeking dismissal on a host of grounds, arguing that the disclosure requirements under FACA no longer apply to the task force because it had ceased operating in September 2001; that the Offices of President and Vice President were exempt from FACA, which they contend only applied to an “agency;” that the Office of Vice President was not subject to FOIA either; and that an “expansive reading” of FACA would encroach on the president’s constitutionally protected right to receive confidential advice from advisers.

It was further argued that only “advisory committees” were subject to FACA, while committees that “[are] composed wholly of full-time, or permanent part-time, officers or employees of the federal government” were excluded. The energy task force, the motion said, met that exception.

Joining Cheney in the motion to dismiss were 10 high-level administration officers: Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, Transportation Secretary Normal Y. Mineta, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, OMB Director Mitchell E. Daniels and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Most were members of the task force. In addition, FERC Chairman Patrick Wood and two top-ranking White House staff members, as well as the energy task force itself, were part of the motion.

Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys asked the court to dismiss the lawsuits’ claims against Wood, since there is “no evidence” that he ever took part in task-force proceedings. They also requested that the two White House staff members be removed from the Judicial Watch legal actions, arguing that FOIA only applied to agency records — not individuals. It “was not meant to include…the President’s immediate personal staff or units in the Executive Office whose sole function is to advise and assist the President,” the motion said.

In both lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court, Judicial Watch is seeking to learn who Cheney and the task force members met with when developing President Bush’s energy policy. Specifically, the watchdog group wants to know how much influence former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay and other energy company executives had over the crafting of the energy policy.

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