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 esponding
to
an article on National Review Online, General Accounting Office
chief David Walker said late Friday that he does not believe Vice
President Dick Cheney has lied about the GAO's demands in the energy-task-force
case.
In a
story which appeared Friday morning, Walker said "there
have been material misrepresentations of facts coming out of the
White House" about the showdown between GAO and the vice president.
Specifically, Walker said, those misrepresentations concerned the
issue of whether the GAO is demanding notes and minutes of energy
task force meetings. While the GAO had asked for notes and minutes
in a demand letter sent to Cheney last July, the office quickly
backed off and sent another letter to Cheney in August which specifically
withdrew the request for notes and minutes. Last Sunday, however,
appearing on Fox News, Cheney said flatly that the GAO was
demanding notes and minutes of energy-task-force meetings. Walker
called that statement "a very critical and highly material
misrepresentation."
In an interview
Friday evening, Walker asked to clarify his remarks. "I do
not believe that Dick Cheney would knowingly lie," Walker said.
"I feel very strongly about that. He is a man of great integrity.
I believe he was poorly briefed by his staff." Walker said
he believes Cheney's "lawyers and staff are telling him we're
asking for what was in the July demand letter and they are ignoring
the communications I had with his personal counsel and they are
ignoring the written confirmation of what we are asking for."
Nevertheless,
Walker has not changed his overall assessment of statements that
have come from others in the White House. "I did say 'material
misrepresentations' and I stand by that," Walker said. But
he described the current atmosphere between the GAO and the White
House as "supercharged" and wanted to emphasize that he
does not believe Cheney has lied.
Meanwhile,
Walker is keeping watch on a case in which the legal-activist group
Judicial Watch is suing Cheney for release of the task force information.
United States District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan handed Judicial
Watch a favorable ruling Thursday when he ordered the Bush administration
to submit a written explanation of why giving the information to
Judicial Watch would do damage to the president's constitutional
prerogatives.
"The judge's
order represents a very interesting development," the GAO's
Walker said in a statement Saturday. "It serves to demonstrate
that the White House's constitutional argument is not as clear cut
as they claim. Importantly, GAO's legal authority to obtain [task
force] related information far exceeds the legal basis under which
Judicial Watch and others are pursuing access to [task force] information.
We look forward to reviewing the administration's response to the
judge's order."
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