Destroying documents

May 30, 2007

This certainly doesn’t seem kosher.

A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states.

The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney’s lawyer says logs for Cheney’s residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory are subject to the Presidential Records Act.

Ah yes, the Presidential Records Act. That would be the law Bush White House officials have been ignoring for years, right? But I digress….

Such a designation prevents the public from learning who visited the vice president.

The Justice Department filed the letter Friday in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence.

As the AP explained, the Secret Service has provides Cheney’s office with a handwritten log of who visits him at the Naval Observatory. Because the VP is involved in “pending lawsuits,” the Secret Service has been keeping a copy of the visitors’ list, in case it’s ever needed in court.

But if the news accounts are accurate, Cheney’s office not only wants the records hidden from public view, it also wants the records destroyed altogether.

“The latest filings make clear that the administration has been destroying documents and entering into secret agreements in violation of the law,” said Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel.

Regarding visitor information, the Secret Service “shall not retain any copy of these documents and information” once the material is given to the office of the vice president, says the September 2006 letter by Shannen Coffin, counsel to the vice president.

“If any documents remain in your possession, please return them to OVP as soon as possible,” the letter added.

It’s not as if Cheney’s penchant for secrecy comes as a surprise, but what’s the rationale to support this? If the VP believes he should maintain some degree of privacy, and he doesn’t want a list of visitors available to reporters, it’s at least worth debating. But Cheney is going much further — he wants lists of visitors to be secret forever. Nothing for the archives, nothing for history, nothing for libraries. No one, Cheney’s office is saying, should ever know who came to the VP’s residence to visit.

Is it me or is that odd?

Why is it that I should be happy to make my life an open book for the government, because I have “nothing to hide,” but the Vice President of the United Statest feels free to destroy – or order to be destroyed – any information that would allow us to judge for ourselves whether he is working within the law?

  • The similarities between this administration and the Nixon admin become more striking all the time, though I think Nixon was a piker compared to the Bush crime family.

  • I would ask all the Republicans in congress if they think it’s kosher. Of course any of them who survive the 2008 purge will no doubt want the rule reversed so they can see who comes to visit VP Barak Obama as he helps formulate the nation’s recovery from Republican malfeasance.

    Al Gore will be president, of course.

  • Has anyone else connected the dots that Cheney is in fact the Anti-Christ and is actively trying to destroy civilization as we know it, or is it just me?

  • The arrogance of these people still is shocking. I should be used to their attitude of lawlessness by now, but I am still stunned from time to time by the nerve of these so called public servants, who use taxpayer resources as their own private gold card.

    When they take the public oath of office don’t they swear to uphold the laws of the land or do they just get to cross their fingers behind their back?

    If DickCheney wants to enjoy privacy like any other private citizen, then he should not have run for public office. And if he wants a modicum of privacy then he should take another residence which is not maintained rent free at the expense of the public. If he wants to live in the residence set aside for the public office of VP, then he should follow the rules or resign.

  • Is it me or is that odd? — CB.

    Is it me or is it odd that the counsel to the vice president goes by the name of Shannen Coffin?

    In this land of Bu$hylvania, talk about GOTHIC.

  • Why would he want to keep such secret information from ever being seen. He’s destroying history so that it would not be seen even after his death. The only possible explanation for this dramatic action must be because for some reason Cheney believes them to be incriminating. Perhaps they are even Treasonous . Perhaps they show meetings with Bin Lauden or crime figures or Al Queda operatives or guests that never came out again. Under no circumstances should he be able to have these records “destroyed”. Nixon couldn’t even have the incriminating WH tapes destroyed. This very action is the act of a traitor. If we had a real, un-corrupt DoJ he would not be able to get away with this. “Somebody stop me….hahahahaha”–Cheney 2007.

  • Hey! I found part of the missing log entries:

    Tuesday:

    9:10am: Saudi ambassador arrives with metal attache case handcuffed to wrist.

    9:42am: Saudi ambassador leaves residence without case.

    2:41pm: Hallburton rep with metal attache case handcuffed to wrist.

    3:10m: Halliburton rep leaves resdence without case.

    9:30pm: Deborah Jeane Palfrey, with young male identified only as her “driver”, enters residence.

    9:38pm: Deborah Jeane Palfrey leaves residence not accompanied by driver.

    12:45pm: Staff member reports spotting an unidentified young male climbing backyard fence onto the street-

    The rest of the log is missing after that last entry

  • If we could get TMZ to be as interested in the VP and the others as they are in Paris and Lindsey, we wouldn’t need the logs… Just keep the paparazzi on them 24/7.

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