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Judge: Cheney Won't Dump Records

Accepts aide's word that docs will go safely to Archives

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 20, 2009 8:00 AM CST

(Newser) – 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.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Vice President Dick Cheney pauses during an interview with the Associated Press at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 in Washington. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Vice President Dick Cheney responds to a question during an interview with the Associated Press at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

In this Nov. 6, 2008 file photo, Vice President Dick Cheney applauds President Bush during an event at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

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Why did he fight this order so much if he did not have the intent to leave with these papers? I'm guessing that a lot of it will not be there. - Plaintiff Stanley I. Kutler, emeritus professor of history and law at the University of Wisconsin Law School

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Judge: Cheney Won't Dump Records