Press

PRESS

September 24, 2008

CREW to Depose Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington

Lawsuits, Federal Agencies, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), The White House, Transparency, Press Releases, Vice President Cheney

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), et al. v. Cheney, et al., the court granted CREW’s request to take the depositions of David Addington, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, and Nancy Smith, the National Archives and Records Administration official responsible for presidential papers under the Presidential Records Act.

The court rejected the government's arguments that no discovery is warranted because they have demonstrated full compliance with the Presidential Records Act. Based on three White house declarations, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned whether the vice president is preserving all vice presidential records, or only two subsets of records. The depositions must take place by October 6, 2008.

Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel said today, "With this decision, there is now nowhere for the White House to duck and hide. We are hopeful that these depositions will allow us to finally uncover whether these important records are being preserved or deliberately lost to future generations."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact David Merchant at 202.408.5565 or dmerchant@citizensforethics.org