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Cheney aide ridicules Judicial Watch 'stunt'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The legal watchdog group suing Vice President Dick Cheney says its process server was threatened with arrest if he left papers at the White House, but a Cheney aide dismissed the attempt as a "PR stunt."

Judicial Watch has filed a federal suit accusing Cheney of wrongdoing during his tenure as CEO of Halliburton, a Dallas-based energy company whose accounting practices are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The group says its process server attempted to serve notice on Cheney at the White House earlier this week by leaving papers at a White House security station.

Judicial Watch is led by Larry Klayman, a controversial legal activist who filed repeated lawsuits against the Clinton administration. Mary Matalin, a top Cheney aide, said the attempt to serve Cheney with the lawsuit "is yet another Klayman PR stunt."

"He's never showed any particular legal prowess, even when he sued his mother," Matalin said. "But even a (junior attorney) knows he should have served the vice president's private attorney."

Cheney's longtime private attorney is Terry O'Donnell, a partner in the Washington law firm of Williams and Connolly.

The lawsuit accuses the oil services company Halliburton, which Cheney ran from 1995 to 2000, of fraudulent accounting. Cheney and several members of Halliburton's board of directors and executive management are named as defendants.

Judicial Watch filed the suit on behalf of shareholders Stephen S. Stephens and Lyle and Deanna Lionbarger, who are seeking about $475,000 in damages. The suit claims Halliburton's accounting practices resulted in the overvaluation of the company's shares, which resulted in investors being deceived.