The Department of Justice (DOJ) asked a federal court last week to put a halt to the General Accounting Office’s (GAO) legal pursuits to gain access to the Bush administration documents and records of the activities of the high-profile task force that formulated the president’s national energy policy last year.

The GAO’s request for the White House records, if approved by the court, would interfere with the president’s constitutional right to receive confidential advice from close advisors, the DOJ said in it motion. Moreover, GAO’s argument that it has “virtually unlimited authority” to investigate activities of the White House task force would “revolutionize and violate” the separation of powers doctrine, a DOJ spokeswoman said. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.

The “information-gathering and policy-developing activities” of the task force fall within the president’s exclusive responsibilities and outside the scope of the investigative authority of Congress, she noted.

The GAO brought the lawsuit last February after the White House refused to comply with repeated agency requests for documents and records related to the task force activities. The agency began its pursuit of the task force records in May 2001 at the request of Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Dingell (D-MI). The Enron Corp. financial scandal fueled calls from more lawmakers for the White House to turn over the records.

The GAO is seeking, among other things, information on meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney, who chaired the task force, and energy executives during which energy policy was discussed, as well as details on the meetings of the task force staff (whom they met with, how many times, and what was discussed), how Cheney and the task force staff decided who would be invited to the meetings, and the direct and indirect costs incurred in developing the national energy policy.

The GAO lawsuit is considered to be the most significant of all the legal actions that have been brought against the federal government to win access to task force documents.

In a related development, a federal court judge last Thursday denied DOJ’s bid to dismiss another lawsuit seeking documents from Cheney and his energy task force.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave Judicial Watch, a public watchdog group which brought the lawsuit, the go-ahead to proceed with discovery in the case. “The court’s ruling lifts the veil of secrecy” that has surrounded the workings of the task force, and allows Judicial Watch to question the Bush administration about its “composition and operations” under oath, said Judicial Watch General Counsel Larry Klayman. The Washington, DC-based group has been joined in the lawsuit by the Sierra Club.

Judicial Watch believes the task force documents will reveal that Enron and other energy companies wielded significant influence over Cheney and his task force when crafting the Bush energy plan.

This is one of two lawsuits brought by Judicial Watch. The other legal action targeted the individual federal agencies that sat on the task force, and forced them to turn over thousands of pages of documents to the group. Judicial Watch, however, still contends that agencies are withholding critical documents and records about the task force’s activities.

Judicial Watch began its pursuit of the task force records more than a year ago. It brought the lawsuit under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (open meetings law) when the Bush administration rebuffed its requests.

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