Dick Cheney can't toss records, says court

Vice President Dick Cheney has a passion for secrecy.

He went to court to protect details about the role of energy executives in private meetings he led to develop the Bush administration's national energy strategy.

He went to Capitol Hill to argue for an exemption to a proposed ban on torture of terror suspects. He wanted to make sure the president had the flexibility to order water boarding or other horrific techniques to prevent a terrorist attack.

Now he's gone to court again to argue that a vice president need only preserve records central to his job as the official who presides over the U.S. Senate or relating to specific tasks assigned by the president. That would narrow the pile considerably.

Saturday, a judge from the U.S. District Court in D.C. rejected that idea, giving a first-round victory to a group of historians and others at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who had sued him in court, concerned about their eventual access to the records.

In her ruling, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly cast doubt on the vice president's argument, given that the Presidential Records Act was specifically amended to prevent former President Richard Nixon from destroying any of the tapes or documents that led to his resignation.

And here's the kicker: Any violation by the preliminary injunction is punishable by immediate contempt -- including the power to jail the offender.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Alberto Pellaschiar/Associated Press

Comments

[Yaknow]

It seems to me that an administration that relies so heavily on signing statements will not let a mere federal judge tell them what to do.

[Archie haase]

I am an American. I live in Brazil. Brazil is a place where it seems corruption is accepted as a way of doing business. Bankers take money from the bank go to Europe and come back and say it was a misunderstanding., then blame it on their American friends on Wall street!! My God it seems the Bush administration has tried very hard to make the US look like Brazilian ethics.

[newsandverse]

SHRED OF EVIDENCE

NEWSWIRE--Vice president Dick Cheney has been ordered to retain all records from his time in office.

You say my records must remain intact;
You'll only ask to look as last resort.
Some hope they'll prove my good intent. In fact,
Some might be better used as proof in court.

www.newsandverse.com
Light verse, ripped from the headlines

[carl c]

Throw the man in jail now before he destroys those records, regardless of what anybody says. He thinks he's above the law. He needs to be shown he's not. It's time to set an example in this country.

[zeke49]

And if KING CHENEY DOES DESTROY records, just what will the disfunctional justice department do about it! NOTHING. This is not a country of laws, but it is a country of rulers. This disgusting fact is proven over and over again. The republicans are the most guilty. Everyone of the republicans since RICHARD NIXON have proven to hold a certain disdain for the U S CONSTITUTION.

[ted in pdx]

In 1989, Ronald Reagan issued an executive order intended to define specific procedures for the Executive branch implementation of the presidential records act (PRA). This was enacted by Congress after Richard Nixon claimed he had the right to destroy records from his administration. The purpose of the act was to prevent members of the Executive branch from destroying records of their activities while in office.

For some reason, George W. Bush revoked the prior Executive order by Ronald Reagan and substituted his own. I've read both of them, and there is so much legal gobbledygook in them, I'm simply not qualified to analyze what Bush did or why. However, I can guess.

Under the circumstances, would the LA Times assign someone with sufficient legal background to explain what Bush was doing, and try to offer some estimate as to the likelihood that the next President (if we survive that long) will be in a position to review the conduct of the George W. Bush administration and determine whether or not "bribery, treason or high-crimes and misdemeanors" occurred during the last eight years?

[MN Leftie]

What a surprise. A judge who will excersize her mandate to uphold the law! This is great. Let's just hope that what must be a virtual mountain of paper and electronic records will be maintained. I have great doubts that a slimy SOB like Chaney will actually comply with the judge's ruling, but if so, it will simply fill in all the dots and lead to the indicment, and hopefully imprisonment, of this key player in the Bush administration's illegal and immoral tenure.

Chaney is a monster. The record will bear me out...if it's ever released, which I seriously doubt. Destoying his spoor is his specialty.

[Wyatt Earp]

Cheney operates like a Mafia don.

They have already spotted a shredding company van outside of his house - this guy is going to clean out every memo,email,report, document that he had anything to do with. Dick is as corrupt and criminal as they come. You have to go after him with RICO statutes, flipping low level accomplices to get higher and higher.

This guy will probably leave the country after Obama wins the election - if he stays, he risks execution as a traitor. I hope they hunt him down, strip him of his ill-gotten war profiteering $millions, and shame his family.

[Vickie Hagan]

So, if the records have disappeared, an assistant to Deadly Dick will take the fall. When Dick wants something, other people pay dearly for it. It would only be fitting for that war criminal to drown in the blood of the victims he helped slaughter. The thought of him drowning in a barrel of crude has a satisfying feel to it, too.

The greedy murderer was in Chattanooga Tennessee this past Friday, September 19 for a Civil War reinactment where his grandfather (with a couple of greats in front of it) fought. His motorcade was scheduled to pass through Chattanooga blocking main roads during heavy afternoon traffic. We have to pay for the expense to haul Demon Dick to his grandaddy's war site in addition to the huge amount of gas wasted due to the traffic snarles that took over an hour and a half (a bit more than the 15 to 20 minutes reported by conservative country radio station. I am sure he was delivered home in time for dinner. On several counts, Dick should be sitting in a prison cell instead of getting in people's way and spending huge amounts of money to visit grandaddy's war site. Too bad grandaddy didn't bite a bullet before leading to the issue of Deadly Dick.

[roger lehnert]

is anyone surprised by what cheney does and does not do and how he and the president feel that they are above the law? the protection afforded pailin is beginning to remind me of the same sick scenario is being played out by the mccain campaign. put her out there and lets see what she is made of. i think we will find that she is limited in knowledge, limited in experience and rather frightening to think of assuming the presidency. but then isn't that cheney? roger

[Stu]

No problem. The Cheney/Bush/McCain group has slithered out of worse crimes than this. These guys are incredible.

[Jackie]

Nothing would be more satisfying than seeing Dick Cheney behind bars! Go ahead Dick, shred away!!!!!

[LKM]

It is about time something is being dome with the corruption that has been going on in our government for the past 8-yrs. This administrarion has raped a pileged this country for too long. It is time for real change! The Change that Obama/Biden can bring.

[Paul Stewart]

Indeed, history will show, this man belongs in jail.

[Jerry]

JAIL? Much too good for the dark prince. God knows what his crimes against America and the world have been; don't forget his boss, and all the fat cats on Wall St. whose greed and corruption We the People have to pay for yet again. So after being screwed by them coming in the front door, the government (our great protectors) gives them the funding to screw us as they are going out the back. And they tell us it's for the good of the economy. Thanks alot republican scum.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

[jboz]

That being said, where's the accountability? How come Cheney isn't in jail yet?

[Mark]

Cheney will do whatever he wants, and no court can compel him to do otherwise. The records are as good as gone, The courts should stop wasting the taxpayers money. In the meantime, Pelosi should had over her gavel to the Republicans because she does whatever they tell her to do, anyway.

[JayPea]

What does he have to hide? What has he done that he can't let anyone find out about it? I suspect he has been reading Mein Kampf to Dubya and doesn't want the American public to suspect that he is playing Goering to Bush's Hitler.

[Christine Calvo]

First the Republicans stoled our country's oil in favor of the big oil companies, and now they're stealing our homes and retirement in favor of bailing out the big Wall Street Billionaires. You bet we have a right to see what Dick Cheney has in his papers. Let's start making the Administration accountable for all it's crimes against the people of the United States of America and don't let another "Maverick" continue on with this plundering of our country.

[Dan]

Cheney is the cosequence of a very ignorant voting public. I hope some of the institutions in the nation do not use his name. I gag every time I hear the name of Reagan used on public buildings. He is the fool who started this ball of corruption rolling.

[Joe J]

History may prove that Cheney belongs in jail. That, however, doesn't mean he'll end up there. After all, the amoral Bill Clinton is still roaming free.

[Jill Again]

I wish we could believe that Cheney would obey the court. He has proven time and again, with Bush's full support and assistance, that he will only do what he wants. No one has ever held either one of them accountable to the laws of the United States. These records will disappear, like many of the rest already have.

[Mim]

I am confident that history will shown that Bush an Cheney belong behind bars. I have never seen such a crooked self-serving administration. Cheney has probably already shreded important papers. Hope that the American people will not allow another McCain/Palin in the office. That was the lowest with Palin, since she was against abortion, and they believed that the American Public would not have time to discover her background. The Americans deserves a better President, that believes in the country and not the selfish attitude of himself and his rich buddies.

[Henst]

We are not a civilized enough nation to jail Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove or George W Bush. weak kneed Democrats and craven Republicans have seen to that. The Republic is about finished.

[dan]

It's not about Cheny or anything he may or may not have said. Cheny is not an ignorant man, they are not going to find anything conclusive on their fishing trip.

This is a power struggle between the branches of government. The legislative and judicial branch has teemed up to try and reduce the power of the executive branch.