The Justice Department said that it is allowed to withhold information about whom it interviewed in its analysis of AMR Corp.'s merger with US Airways Group Inc., information the airlines are seeking in their fight against a federal suit to block the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Justice Department said in a filing on Thursday that U.S. Supreme Court precedent protects the government from a "naked, general, demand" for the facts the airlines want. Such information could "necessarily reveal the opinions and mental processes of counsel, and therefore is improper," the government said in the filing with U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. US Airways and AMR, the parent of American Airlines, on Tuesday said that they wanted a court order forcing the Justice Department to turn over information about third parties that were interviewed, including their names and what they said. The carriers want the information, which they described as routine, to determine how the department reached it decision to block the merger.
