Calls for Investigation Into Energy CEOs’ Congressional Testimony

Following up on an archive of postings on the Cheney Energy Task Force investigation, the embers of this controversy are still glowing:

  • Press release, November 23, 2005: “United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today released a report(3 pages, PDF) rebutting the legal argument put forward by Senate Republicans to protect the Big Oil CEOs who denied that their companies had participated in Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Energy Task Force. Lautenberg last week requested an investigation by the Department of Justice after the Washington Post reported on a document that contradicted the testimony given by some Big Oil CEOs at a November 9 Senate hearing. It is illegal to make false statements to Congress.”
  • Washington Post, December 1, 2005: Top Oil Company Executives Retool Responses on Energy Task Force Roles
  • AP, November 30, 2005: Oil executives deny misleading Congress
  • Posted on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources website, the text of individual Response Letters from Oil Companies In Reply to Senate Request for Clarification
  • Press release, November 30, 2005, Sen. Harry Reid: “I find it deeply disturbing that energy company CEOs may have made false statements before Congress about their involvement in the secretive Cheney energy task force. Despite the Vice President’s active efforts to thwart open and transparent government, Congress has the right and the responsibility to seek and obtain information from witnesses that is honest and complete.”

    • Related research:

  • From the Center for Public Integrity, “Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff have been unilaterally exempting themselves from long-standing travel disclosure rules followed by the rest of the executive branch, including the Office of the President.”
  • Letter (PDF) from then Counsel to the Vice President stating that “the reporting requirement does not apply…”

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    Posted in: Congress, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research
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