Dick Cheney/meet the press

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — A federal judge issued a ruling Thursday saying the government has to release a substantial portion of  an FBI interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney tied to the probe into the leak identifying CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations wanted to keep the 2004 interview confidential. They argued releasing the materials might prevent future vice presidents from cooperating in criminal probes.

But Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting to see what amounted to 67-pages of records documenting the interview.

U.S. District Judge Emmet J. Sullivan, in his ruling on Thursday wrote because the case is over: “The court concludes that the agency has failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the requested documents were properly withheld in their entirety under any FOIA exemption protecting law enforcement interests.”

But he added: “Limited portions of those documents, however, were properly withheld under exemptions designed to protect information that is privileged or that could impinge on personal privacy or threaten national security.”

Read Judge’s Ruling