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Federal Judge Orders Cheney Interviews Released
The National Law Journal
October 02, 2009
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to release records of interviews with former Vice President Dick Cheney conducted during its investigation into the Valerie Plame leak.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the Justice Department's argument that releasing the interviews would have a chilling effect on future investigations involving White House officials. He found that the government had failed to show that "specific ongoing or reasonably anticipated law enforcement proceedings" would be impacted.
"Any attempt to predict the harm that disclosure of these records could have ... is therefore inherently, incurably speculative," Sullivan wrote. "Accordingly, the Court concludes that DOJ has failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the records were properly withheld."
Sullivan did find that "certain limited information" was properly withheld, some of which pertained to internal agency communications, as well as conversations between the president and vice president. Those portions could be redacted from the final documents, the judge ruled.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued the Justice Department last year in an effort to obtain the interviews. Cheney was questioned as part of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's inquiry into who leaked former CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to the media.
"Judge Sullivan rightly rejected a Justice Department interpretation of the FOIA that would have allowed the government to withhold virtually any law enforcement record even where an investigation has long since been concluded," said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan in a statement. "We are disappointed, however, that the judge allowed DOJ to withhold portions of some records."
This article first appeared on The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
