Setback for Cheney on records lawsuit

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A federal court Friday ruled that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney must allow an aide to testify in a lawsuit over preservation of his vice presidential records.

The U.S. District Court in Washington ruled against Cheney in a lawsuit by several historians and a Washington advocacy group seeking to preserve records the Bush administration has tried to keep from making public.

The ruling, which Cheney may appeal, requires the vice president to allow his deputy chief of staff, Claire O'Donnell, to give testimony in the lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Cheney has argued that a U.S. vice president is not required to preserve records other than those that are central to his constitutional responsibility to preside over the U.S. Senate or those that relate to specific responsibilities assigned by the president, the Times said.

The plaintiffs, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, previously won a victory in September when a U.S. judge ruled that Cheney must preserve records at the center of the lawsuit. In Friday's ruling, the court rejected Cheney's effort to block discovery in the suit.

CREW attorney Anne Weismann said Friday's ruling "moves us one step closer to ensuring that important historical documents will not be lost to future generations."

Cheney's office declined to comment on the ruling, the newspaper said.