Bush Aides Admit Being Behind on Review of Cheney Documents

WASHINGTON —  Seven days before a court-imposed deadline, the Bush administration said Tuesday that it has fully reviewed only two out of 12 boxes of documents at issue in lawsuits over Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force.

In a three-page court filing, the administration said it also is sorting through 10,000 e-mails to find several thousand messages about the Cheney panel. Two private groups -- the Sierra Club and the conservative group Judicial Watch -- are suing because the Bush administration refuses to release any documents on the energy plan it drafted last year.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave the White House until Tuesday to either release the documents or compile a list identifying each document that it contends should remain confidential.

The judge said on Oct. 17 that he was shocked to hear from the government that it had not yet examined all the documents. It was not clear until Tuesday precisely how much material was at issue in the case.