Cheney fights release of videotaped depositions

Vice President Dick Cheney’s office filed a motion Saturday to block the release of videotaped depositions given by two aides who witnessed a physical encounter between Cheney and an Iraqi war opponent at a Colorado mall in 2006.

The vice president’s office argued against the videotapes’ release on privacy grounds, claiming that they could end up on YouTube or elsewhere on the web. On the tapes, Cheney aide Charles Durkin and White House photographer David Bohrer testified about their recollections of an encounter between Cheney and a Colorado resident who was arrested after approaching the vice president in a Beaver Creek, Colo., mall.

The vice president’s office contends that if any tapes are released, the aides’ faces should be blurred along with any other appropriate redactions to ensure their privacy rights are upheld.