Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

White House Going on Defense as Congress Challenges Administration Over Enron Scandal

Aired February 25, 2002 - 09:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is going on the defense as Congress challenges the administration over the Enron scandal. For the first time in the GAO's history, the General Accounting Office that is, the investigative arm of Congress is suing the executive branch of our government. The GAO wants the records of Vice President Dick Cheney's meetings with industry officials at the time that the administration was formulating its energy task force. So we have a bit of staredown going on between the GAO and the White House.

Standing by outside the White House is our correspondent Major Garrett with more on how this thing may end. This is an interesting story that's unfolding, isn't it?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very much it is, Jack. And we have a couple of important principles at stake. On the one hand, the public's right to know. That's clearly what the General Accounting Office is pushing for. And the other principle at stake is any president, this or future president's, ability to obtain candid advice about developing policy and keep that candid advice private.

But, Jack, if you read the lawsuit, you get the distinct impression these two very powerful institutions, the General Accounting Office and the White House are talking past each other as opposed to each other.

Now I know what you are thinking, you are thinking, Major, whatever you do, don't read the lawsuit. That's terrible television. But I've got to, Jack. There are couple of points in here that simply have to be made.

On page 14 of the lawsuit, the GAO recounts its demand letter, which is the first formal request made of the White House, telling it what it wanted. And in that demand letter, given to the White House last July, it says we want the purpose and the agenda of these meetings, any information presented, and the minutes and notes of those meetings. And it is the White House that seized on this request, saying you're asking for White House deliberations, and you simply don't have the authority to ask for that.

You turn the page in the lawsuit, and then the GAO says that shortly after that, the filing of that important demand letter, it narrowed the focus of its investigation with a phone call to the vice president, saying, "In the interest of committy, and out of respect for the vice president, the comptroller general eliminated GAO's request for the minutes and notes of the meetings."

The White House says, until you formerly put new narrower request in a new demand letter, we've got nothing to talk about.

But the GAO in its own lawsuit, says all we want are the names of people you met with, the dates you met with them, and the costs of those meetings. And so what you see here, Jack, is two powerful institutions putting on paper what they want, it appears as a way to resolve it. But until the White House says there's a reformulation of that formal request from the GAO, they are not gonig to talk to them about it, and it will be up to a court maybe not to decide these much larger issues of the public's right to know versus a president's ability to get and obtain candid advice and keep it private, but a much more narrow issue of who has to file the most proper demand letter. That's what this could all boil down to in the end.

CAFFERTY: At the end of the day, it could all be about minutiae, huh?

GARRETT: Exactly.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Major, very much. CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com