Court Says No To Feds Attempt To Delay Handing Over Lobbying Info On Telco Immunity

from the 'fess-up dept

Tue, Oct 13th 2009 10:27pm — Mike Masnick

After a court ordered the White House to hand over info on who lobbied for getting telco immunity over warrantless wiretaps, the administration has been trying hard to stall. It first asked for a 60 day delay, in order to think about filing an appeal. That was denied. Then it asked for a 30 day delay for the same reason... and, surprise, surprise, that's now been denied as well. The White House has until Friday to cough up the info. Anyone have thoughts on what the White House will do to try to delay this time?

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Filed Under: stalling, telco immunity

39 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2009 @ 10:35pm

Executive orders? National security? Some twisted version of sovereign immunity (ie: they can't be prosecuted while in office. Ie: they must be impeached first?). Or they might simply not hand over the info and see what happens. The executive branch is responsible for enforcing the law right? If they don't enforce the law who will?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2009 @ 10:35pm

Re:
but I should not be giving them any ideas.
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PCDEC, 13 Oct 2009 @ 10:51pm

My dog ate it.

It's a hard one to pull off but if anyone can it's the white house.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2009 @ 11:54pm

Re:
Well, it is possible. There is always that possibility. The white house dog COULD have eaten it. Just like more transparency COULD be a bad thing. But it's very unlikely.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2009 @ 11:54pm

they'll probably say that the info was stored on the tmobil "Danger" server and all the data was lost...lawls
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 12:08am

The information will probably end up buried underneath all those missing White House emails that are still missing.
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Chargone (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 1:54am

Re:
arguably, that's the point at which one encounters the Reason why American citizens have the right to 'keep and bear arms' [bare? some other bizarre spelling?].

tossing out corrupt officials, was it not? :)
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elpookie, 14 Oct 2009 @ 4:11am

telco immunity
The dog eat it!? That is funny. Heck, why not try it. More likely is a petition to the 9th Cir. panel in charge of the District Court asking for review. If that fails, ask for a complete review to the entire 9th Cir., not just the three that make the initial panel. Or, lord, they could turn over the info in a redacted form as to make it useless and force the Plaintiffs to ask the Court for an order removing the redactions. Instant continuance.

Not to bore anyone, but I have a fundamental problem with the approval of what appears a patently unconstitutional act and the executive's efforts to make it legal after the fact. Executive Privilege and immunity for those involved does go a long way, however, to protect the parties.

Which reminds me of the Star Chamber proceedings where people were charged with crimes and when asked for the evidence the government would refuse because of "national security." So in essence, the government became judge, jury and executioner. Do no believe that is what the founding framers of our Constitution had in mind.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 4:14am

Re:
How about sending the judge to Gitmo?
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DS, 14 Oct 2009 @ 4:24am

Mike, you missed something, its the Nobel Peace Prize winning Whitehouse who's delaying the release of records.
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ReallyEvilCanine, 14 Oct 2009 @ 4:38am

"Continuance"
Based on a lack of available staff and the fact that the staff members which are available aren't actually authorised to access the computer systems which hold the requested data, said systems about to be taken down for maintenance this afternoon and, WHOOPS! I'm sure we have back-ups somewhere, just let my check my Palm III for the data store location. You know, if it can happen to Microsoft and Telkom, you really can't get too upset that we might have lost a few figures ourselves...
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 5:20am

Anyone here ever seen Wag the Dog?
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Jeff S (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 5:22am

I believe they'll use the old "Hope and Change" slogan all over again.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 6:12am

They'll just fire the judge and get one that is more convenient for them... I mean come on, they are your supreme rulers.
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Ben, 14 Oct 2009 @ 7:46am

You know what would be funny? Hold the president in Contempt of Court and have him arrested. See what happens, if the WhiteHouse is playing that game, why not play it back.
You know the beauty of Contempt? The judge can hold you indefinitely, but usually only holds for no more than 30 days. Sorta like the crap that the White House did to get themselves here in the first place.
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Avatar28 (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 7:46am

Oh, gee. You know, we'd like to turn over those records, but we just can't find them right now. We are looking for them though. What's that noise in the background? Oh, that's not a paper shredder, they're just, um, doing some construction. Yeah, construction.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 7:47am

Who's up for a late night Enron style shredding session?
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hegemon13, 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:06am

No repurcussions, no accountability
"The White House has until Friday to cough up the info."

And if they don't?

Exactly.

We will never see any of these documents until it is far too late to do any good.
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Esahc (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:32am

Re:
Dear Court,

I hope we can we can change your mind.

Sincerely,
Obama Christ, savior of America, Nobel Laureate, and future Oscar winner . . .
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David (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:32am

I got it!
Some poor White House intern or junior counsel will end up in jail
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Analyst (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:33am

Piece of Cake
"State Secrets"
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Esahc (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:34am

Re: No repurcussions, no accountability
seriously, what are the consequences if he doesn't?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:49am

Re: Re:
very arguably, you think were all gonna get our hunting rifles and pistols and march up to Washington and make a citizens arrest? :)

That amendment is as archaic as the "Useful arts" clause :)
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Matthew Cruse (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 9:57am

The American Way
Despite the sarcasm and conspiracy theories, this country -imperfect as it is- is bound by laws. Laws made by imperfect people, some with ulterior motives or hidden agendas, and some people are just ignorant of the consequences of their actions. But when all is said and done, we all in this country are bound by those laws. So, in my opinion once all of the legal methods of delay and obfuscation are over the White House will.......hand over the records as the law says they must. And in reply to someones earlier comment the President is not a King, and the White House is not a Castle. The Executive branch is responsible to the Judiciary and Legislative branches, that is why we have three branches of Gov't that all must balance each other.
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Almost Anonymous (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 10:05am

The Information
... was all stored on Sidekicks . Sorry we can't hand it over, but we did get a nifty $100 giftcard from T-Mobile!
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batch, 14 Oct 2009 @ 10:34am

Re: Re:
I can definitely see Bush's administration claiming a dog ate all the documents; saying "thats tough, deal with it".

This administration will probably just not comply until all the originals are shredded and whats left censored to uselessness.

Same result, regardless of political party or administration.
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weneedhelp (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 11:08am

Change?
Yeah right. Criminal protect criminals.
Matthew...where have you been the past 8 years? Our "laws" have been changed by, IMHO, criminals to protect their criminal cohorts.
"we all in this country are bound by those laws."
Except those who control the "laws". They change them to fit their agenda.

"the President is not a King, and the White House is not a Castle"
Again I ask you; Where have you been the past 8 years.

Just have the right people in the right places and you can have King like powers. Case in point (I will provide a link, but I doubt anyone will watch.)
http://iraqforsale.org/
I am also sick of idiots that use the word conspiracy to discredit those with VALID concerns.

Where is Osama?
Why did everyone that failed to prevent 911 get promoted?
Why was Norman Mineta's testimony not included in the 911 report?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh0zidBf6PE

Why when released from the NTSB, the flight data recorder from flight 77, did the altimeter get adjusted upon take off and not landing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altimeter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWZhHSMzhlI - 7 parts.

And on and on. No conspiracies here.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 12:46pm

Re: Re:
"arguably, that's the point at which one encounters the Reason why American citizens have the right to 'keep and bear arms' [bare? some other bizarre spelling?]."

Yes, it's pronounced like "bear" or "bare" but it's actually spelled Ditka....

We have the right to Ditka arms....
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 1:08pm

Executive privilege
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Dark Helmet (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 2:39pm

Re:
Executive privelage doesn't apply, because it only protects the Executive branch from resisting some subpeonas, and in this case it is Telco companies that they're going after, not the Executive branch.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 2:44pm

Re: Re:
But that won't stop them from trying. I never said it'll work but the question was

"Anyone have thoughts on what the White House will do to try to delay this time?"

They'll throw everything in there that they can no matter how ridiculous.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 2:49pm

Re: Re: Re:
In other words I kinda said executive order within the context of the person who said "my dog ate it." It wasn't really meant to be a serious remark, more of a tongue and cheek.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 2:52pm

Re:
Which, like everything else, can be bought with lobbyists.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Oct 2009 @ 2:58pm

Re:
Mike, you missed something, its the Nobel Peace Prize winning Whitehouse [sic] who's delaying the release of records.

Umm, two points. First, when did the "Whitehouse" win a Nobel Peace Prize? Second, Mike mentioned the White House in the very first sentence. If your reading skills are really that low, perhaps you should go back to watching Faux News on the TV.
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Derek Kerton (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 3:04pm

Pages of Black Ink
One word: Redaction
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another mike, 14 Oct 2009 @ 4:46pm

Re: Re: No repurcussions, no accountability
What are they going to do? Arrest him? He'll cut off the global supply of unicorn flatulence and we need that to power our economy!
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slander (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 6:30pm

Re: Re: Re:
And to think that for all these years I thought it was the right to Bryant arms...
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Outside Observer, 14 Oct 2009 @ 10:24pm

Invade somebody, thats what they usually do to distract you silly Americans.

Although, I do admit that I am posting this 21 hours after the article went up, because I have been asleep/at tafe for that time, so maybe I've missed the news on the invasion.
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anon, 15 Oct 2009 @ 12:14am

Re: telco immunity
i've said it before and i might comment it again but: when all involved members are in on it. it doesn't matter what the founding documents say.
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