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Judge: Cheney Won't Dump Records
Accepts aide's word that docs will go safely to Archives
By Matt Cantor
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Posted Jan 20, 09 8:00 AM CST
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(Newser)
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A federal judge yesterday rejected historians’ and nonprofits’ complaint that Vice President Dick Cheney planned to illegally dump some of his papers, the Washington Post reports. The judge instead took the word of a White House aide that the documents would go to the National Archives as required. The ruling follows a long tussle over Cheney’s power to decide what to reveal; throughout, Cheney has lost on almost every issue.
But “at the end of the day, we couldn't come up with evidence” that records would be hidden or destroyed, said a plaintiff’s council. The judge noted “constantly shifting arguments” on Cheney’s side, but said that “that confusion is not evidence” to prompt a rejection of the aide’s testimony. But at least one plaintiff, an academic, is still concerned that “when the Archives goes to open Cheney's papers, they are going to find empty boxes.”