The White House’s six-page list released Wednesday identifying numerous contacts between Bush administration officials and former energy giant Enron Corp. “does not by a long stretch” comply with the Senate’s subpoenas for more exhaustive records and documents, said a spokeswoman for Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).

“We knew in advance of the White House plans to release it [the list of contacts], and that it would not be responsive to Sen. Lieberman’s request,” Leslie Phillips told NGI. White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales sent a letter with an attached list of Enron contacts to Capitol Hill late Wednesday, only hours after the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs, approved the subpoenas.

The disclosure of the White House-Enron contacts was viewed as an attempt by the Bush administration to head off the subpoenas of the Senate panel, which has been seeking documents and records from the White House since late March. The Governmental Affairs Committee is one of many congressional panels that are investigating the Enron scandal.

The subpoenas order the “Custodian of Records” in the Offices of the President and Vice President to appear before the Senate committee on June 5 to testify about “what you may know” about Bush administration ties to Enron. They further direct the White House to turn over all documents related to White House-Enron contacts for the period of Jan. 1, 1992 to Dec. 2, 2001.

Notably, Gonzales’ letter revealed that former Enron Chairman Ken Lay telephoned senior Bush advisor, Karl Rove, to express his support for President Bush’s intention to nominate Nora M. Brownell to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Lay also was said to have “expressed concern that certain individuals were making efforts to discourage Ms. Brownell from accepting the appointment.” Rove later assured Lay that “no such efforts were taking place.”

In a Jan. 8, 2001 letter, Lay recommended seven candidates for FERC, including Brownell and FERC Chairman Pat Wood, both of whom joined the Commission in mid-2001. The appointments of Wood and Brownell have been tarnished somewhat by the evolving Enron debacle, although both contend that Lay’s endorsements were unsolicited. The White House disclosed that of the 21 people who Lay recommended for White House appointments, only three of them were appointed ultimately.

Bush had a brief meeting with Lay and about 19 other business executives on Feb. 7, 2001, during which he “made informal remarks concerning the general condition of the U.S. economy and the need for a tax cut,” according to Gonzales’ letter to Lieberman. Two months later, on April 17, Lay and another Enron executive met with Vice President Dick Cheney to discuss energy policy and the California energy crisis. Gonzales also lists a Feb. 22, 2001 meeting between Lay and energy task force director, Andrew Lundquist, as well as several other meetings between Enron officials and task force staff members.

In the letter, Gonzales said he was unable to uncover any instances where Enron officials approached any person in the Offices of the President and Vice President for “help in connection with its financial difficulties” prior to the company filing for bankruptcy last December. “The communications we have identified thus far reflect only appropriate and responsible actions by government officials,” Gonzales wrote. He noted that the list of contacts was “preliminary” and might have to be “supplemented or amended” later.

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