The Obama administration continues to back away from its grand promises of transparency and open government by using legal arguments virtually identical to those made by Justice Department lawyers working under George W. Bush to block the release of critical documents.
In two separate cases this week, Obama’s Justice Department provided additional reasons for refusing to turning over documents to civil liberties and government watchdog groups.
In the first case, Obama’s Justice Department expanded upon its legal rationale Wednesday as to why it won't turn over a copy of a May 2004 transcript of Dick Cheney’s interview with Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to probe the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. [For the definitive account on this issue please read Marcy Wheeler's excellent analysis.]
And on Thursday, after several delays, the Justice Department said it would not release until the end of the summer a CIA inspector general’s report that was believed to have been sharply critical of the Bush administration’s torture program. Even then, the Justice Department said, there is no guarantee that any part of the report would be declassified.
In the case involving Cheney’s interview with Fitzgerald, Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said in a declaration (which begins on page 11 of the court filing) that releasing the transcript would deter future White House officials from cooperating with investigations, even those conducted by independent counsels.
“The Department of Justice believes that there is a reasonable probability of future law enforcement investigations by the Department of Justice that will require and benefit from obtaining information from White House officials, possibly at the highest level of government,” Breuer’s declaration states. “In any such investigation, it will be important that White House officials be able to provide law enforcement officials with a full account of relevant events...
“Baseless, partisan allegations that, easily could be investigated and dismissed through voluntary interviews now may have to be investigated through the specter of the grand jury process. In addition, if law enforcement interviews are routinely subject to public disclosure, there could be a significant risk of politicization of law enforcement files and investigations, which could undermine the integrity and effectiveness of, and public confidence in, those investigations.”
Late last month, during a court hearing in the case, Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith made a similar argument. He told a federal judge that release of the transcript might open Cheney to ridicule from late-night comics and thus could discourage other White House officials from cooperating with government prosecutors.
"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Smith said during a Thursday court hearing. "I don't want a future Vice President to say, 'I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for The Daily Show.' "
When asked by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan whether the Obama administration was standing behind the refusal of George W. Bush’s Justice Department to release the transcript, Smith answered, “This has been vetted by the leadership offices. … This is a department position.”
The Justice Department's latest court filing includes a separate declaration by David J. Barron, the Acting Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, explaining the topics Fitzgerald discussed with Cheney.
Additionally, it had long been understood that Fitzgerald interviewed Cheney was in June 2004. But according to another declaration in the Justice Department filing, the interview is believed to have taken place on May 8, 2004, more than a month before Bush was interviewed by Fitzgerald, according to a description of the subjects discussed during Cheney’s interview.
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I'm still waiting for the outrage from those who supported Obama and slammed 'Dubya for his power grab. Isn't it time for you people to wake up and realize that it's the same asshole, just different mask? Stop making excuses for this asshole, stop putting "Party" above your country and let's throw these scum out of office and enact real change. Don't you think it's time we took our country back from the Tyrants that have been running it?
