-Caveat Lector- White House misses deadline to hand over Enron papers
Copyright � 2002 AP Online By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (June 4, 2002 2:07 p.m. EDT) - A noon deadline passed Tuesday without the White House handing over to a Senate panel more than 2,100 pages of documents related to contacts with Enron officials. The panel had subpoenaed the papers. White House officials said they were concerned about the security of the documents, which contain sensitive information, and they wanted to reach an agreement with the committee on safeguarding the materials before physically turning them over to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The two sides continued Tuesday to try to work out an arrangement, after the committee extended by 24 hours the noon Monday deadline for turning over the documents under Congress' first subpoenas to the Bush White House. "We just want to make sure that the information is handled appropriately," White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said. Presidential counsel Alberto Gonzales said Monday the documents would not be turned over to the panel until an agreement is reached with the panel on "procedures to safeguard the security and confidentiality of these documents." Rather, the documents - 1,745 pages from Bush's office and 432 documents from Cheney's - were made available at the White House for inspection and review by the committee staff. White House officials said the documents include sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses of government officials, communications among government employees regarding policy and foreign relations, and confidential business information. On Monday, Gonzales and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney called the 2,100 pages or so made available for review a partial response to the twin subpoenas issued May 22 by the committee. The offices of President Bush and Cheney said they were still receiving documents from employees. No instance has been found so far of Enron officials asking anyone in the White House for help before the company's bankruptcy last December, Gonzales said. The documents reviewed so far also show that White House officials' actions were "responsible and consistent with the appropriate performance of their official duties," he said in a letter to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the committee's chairman. Houston-based Enron has been one of Bush's biggest campaign contributors. "The committee is trying to work with the White House to provide all appropriate assurances that the documents it subpoenaed will be maintained in a secure manner, while still allowing the committee to conduct its important oversight work," Lieberman said in a statement Monday. So far, no documents are being withheld on grounds of executive privilege, Gonzales told Lieberman. The panel has been seeking the information from the White House since late March as part of its Enron investigation. The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, sued Cheney in February to force release of the names of figures from Enron and other oil companies who met last year with the vice president's energy task force. Hours after the Democratic-controlled Senate committee voted on party lines to issue the subpoenas, the White House provided summaries of dozens of contacts between Enron executives and Bush administration officials, including Cheney. The Bush administration disclosed in January that then-Enron chairman Kenneth Lay made a series of telephone calls to members of the Bush Cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans, as the company sank toward collapse last fall. The material being sought by the Senate committee goes back to January 1992, also covering the Clinton administration. 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