Michael Moore wants to know what the U.S. Treasury Department is saying about him and he isn't one to just take the government's word for it.

The controversy-courting filmmaker filed a Freedom of Information Act request Wednesday asking for all of the documents pertaining to the recent investigation launched by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control into Moore's trip to Cuba during the making of his latest documentary, the healthcare industry-skewering Sicko.

Authorities informed Moore via letter earlier this month that it was launching a civil investigation to determine whether he violated the U.S. trade embargo, which restricts Americans' travel to Cuba.

The OFAC said that Moore did not have the proper license when he took a group of 9-11 survivors to the Fidel Castro-led nation, ostensibly to see whether the Cuban healthcare system could provide more efficient care to this handful of ailing U.S. residents who supposedly kept running into roadblocks in their own country.

While the OFAC admitted that Moore had applied for permission to go to Cuba, the letter said that "no determination had been made by OFAC."

After learning about the government probe pointed in his direction, Moore lambasted the Bush administration (again) for "abusing the federal government for raw, crass political purposes."

"I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me," the Fahrenheit 9/11 director said in an open letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide."

So despite the fact that Sicko premieres Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, where Fahrenheit 9/11 won the Palm d'Or three years ago, the storm clouds are gathering in Washington.

Moore challenged Law & Order star and possible Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson to a debate over healthcare Tuesday after the former U.S. senator implied in an article for the National Review that Moore may have taken advantage of his movie-minded jaunt to Cuba and used the opportunity to import some Montecristo Cigars from Havana.

As in, way taboo "Cubans."

"They started this," Moore said, "and I think that somehow by making some sort of example of me, that helps them with a certain community in terms of voters." The filmmaker also sent a duplicate copy of Sicko to a "safe house" outside of the United States to ensure that he wouldn't have a problem providing the Cannes fest with his film.

Thompson, who took a pass on a tête-à-tête with Moore, suggested that the director should seek asylum in more ways than one.

Documentary filmmaker Nicolás Guillén Landrián "did something Castro didn't like and they put him in a mental institution for several years, giving him devastating electroshock treatments," Thompson, who is reportedly leaving L&O after this season to focus on a possible presidential run in '08, said in a videotaped response. "A mental institution, Michael, it might be something you ought to think about."

The Weinstein Co. (a longtime Moore fan, Harvey Weinstein took a risk on Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 after Disney refused to release the provocative documentary) and Lionsgate, which is distributing the film, are prepared to milk the Treasury Department's interest for all its worth.

Chris Lehane, a political consultant on Sicko, told the Hollywood Reporter that Lionsgate and the Weinsteins would "go to the mattresses for this film and fight the Bush efforts in every way possible."

But while Capitol Hill has already taken an interest, it remains to be seen what ticket-buying audiences have to say once Sicko hits U.S. theaters June 29.