Washington Post 2/26/99 Editorial "...Judge Lamberth on Monday held Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt of court for the government's failure over more than two years to produce discovery material related to a class-action lawsuit by a group of Native Americans. The plaintiffs allege that the government mishandled money held in trust on their behalf, and demand an accounting of the trust, a restoration of the true value of the trust accounts and an end to the trust's abuse. Because Judge Lamberth is prone to harsh language, particularly when government conduct is at issue, one may be tempted to read with a certain cynicism statements such as, "The federal government here did not just stub its toe. . . . I have never seen more egregious misconduct by the federal government." Yet the government's conduct in the litigation is, as Judge Lamberth alleges, "a shocking pattern of deception of the court." This is particularly so in light of the gross mismanagement that gave rise to the litigation. This money is not a welfare program but the property of individual Indians, proceeds of the use of land that was allotted to them but held in trust by the federal government.... "

Indian Country Today 6/10/99 David Melmer "... It was a long time coming, but the courts must now decide whether or not the federal government was derelict in its trust responsibility to 300,000 American Indian people. The largest class action lawsuit in history is about Individual Indian Money accounting procedures..... District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered an investigation and report on the condition of the records throughout the BIA system. The appointed special master submitted the report to the court June 2 with the provision it would not become public before Judge Lamberth ordered it opened. Jim McCarthy, spokesperson for the plaintiffs, said they expect the report to show that records were kept in barns and other buildings that were condemned, verifying massive disarray. He also said the report will show continued destruction of records. The IIM trust fund problem carries the label of the largest, longest, financial scandal in the nation, according to Cobell and attorneys for the Native American Rights Fund. The 300,000 account holders demand accountability. Cobell accused the BIA and Department of Interior of losing, misplacing or destroying documents that could reconcile lost funds. According to the Cobell, the loss amounts to billions of dollars. "Justice is just around the corner for Native Americans," said Robert Peregoy, counsel for the plaintiffs. "It was estimated that it would cost $281 million just to reconcile those IIM accounts and at the end of the day any information they came up with would be virtually worthless because of the missing, lost and destroyed records," he said. The money belongs to individuals, not the federal government, but is managed in trust by the U.S. Treasury and administered by the Department of Interior...... "The federal government in actuality has no idea how much of our money it has; how much of our money it should have; how much of our money it has lost; or how much of our money that could easily be and may be stolen every single day.....The government readily admitted documents were lost and a change in the reconciliation is required. In fact, in affidavits from former members of Solicitor's Office in the Department of Interior, the assertion is that some of the records were deliberately destroyed. This accusation is strongly denounced by Babbitt and Gover. The road to trial is paved with controversy and mountains of legal paperwork including a contempt charge against Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover and Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. Judge Royce Lamberth issued the contempt charges for failure to follow a court order to submit documents...... Babbitt and Gover were subjected to harsh criticism from Congress. Former Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized the BIA for its handling of the trust funds and when Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., became chairman of the same committee he continued the barrage of criticism......."

Washington Post 7/10/99 Bill Miller "…Portraying himself as an ardent supporter of Native Americans, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt told a federal judge yesterday that he is committed to overhauling a problem-ridden trust fund system maintained on their behalf. … Babbitt's testimony came at the trial of a class action lawsuit by the Native American Rights Fund that accuses the federal government of mismanaging billions of dollars in Indian trust accounts. The presiding U.S. district judge, Royce C. Lamberth, has repeatedly criticized the government's failure to improve an antiquated record system and has openly considered naming a special master to oversee reform….. It's not the first time Lamberth and Babbitt have tangled. Earlier this year, the judge held Babbitt, Assistant Interior Secretary Kevin Gover and Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin in contempt of court for failing to ensure that records essential to the case were turned over to attorneys for the Indians…. The trial will determine what to do with roughly 350,000 trust accounts held by individual Indians. The trust funds were established more than 100 years ago to compensate Indians for use of their land; the government is supposed to manage the accounts and pass along royalties from the sale of petroleum, timber and other natural resources taken from the land. In all, the government deposits approximately $350 million per year into the accounts. Both sides agree that record-keeping historically has been a mess and that there has never been an adequate accounting. The Indians contend they should be eligible to collect billions of dollars in damages. Attorneys for the Native Americans maintain that the trusts have been mishandled and neglected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) -- an arm of the Interior Department -- and the Treasury Department, which invests the money. Much of Babbitt's testimony dealt with his response to legislation passed by Congress in 1994 requiring massive trust reforms. The legislation called upon Clinton to name a special trustee for Indians, and he chose Paul M. Homan, a trust specialist and former president of Riggs National Bank. Although Babbitt initially recommended Homan for the job, the two had a public falling-out that led to Homan's resignation earlier this year. Homan has testified that Babbitt never gave him enough money or staff to make significant progress. Among other things, he complained that Babbitt opposed his plans to create an outside agency to handle the trust system…."

Landow, a friend of Gore, raised a total of $600,000 for Clinton/Gore in 92 and 96, allegedly pressured Kathleen Willey to be silent, was involved in a hotel/casino project with Joe Nesline, Edward Cellini and a representative of the Gambino crime family, sought a multi-million dollar contract with the Cheyenne/Arapaho Indian tribes and offered to lobby for the tribes with Peter Knight, former Clinton/Gore campaign manager. Michael Copperthite stated that Landow urged him to lie to investigators about the Indian tribe land deals/fundraising.

Sacramento Bee 7/27/98 Mary Lynne Vellinga "In the months leading up to the June primary, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians emerged as a generous backer of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis. The tribe, which operates the Fantasy Springs Casino outside Palm Springs, spent nearly $ 10,000 to charter airplanes for Davis on four separate occasions, and donated an additional $ 100,000 in cash to Davis' campaign, according to campaign reports.Moreover, two executives of the Cabazon Band were indicted in June for allegedly laundering thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to candidates for federal office, including President Clinton."

AP 3/10/99 "…President Clinton asked Congress for $15 million Wednesday to cover Interior Department expenses defending itself in a lawsuit over Indian trust funds. … The lawsuit, filed on behalf of some 3,000 individual Indian money accounts against the Interior and Treasury departments, alleges mismanagement of $500 million in Indian trust funds. The money includes lease revenue, royalties and court settlements. A federal judge last month found Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt of court over their delay in producing records sought by five account holders who filed the lawsuit. The administration was ordered to pay legal fees the plaintiffs incurred while waiting for the records…."

WorldNetDaily 2/16/99 Charlton Heston at Harvard "….Let me read a few examples. At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation ... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive. In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDS --- the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not. .. need not ... tell their patients that they are infected. At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name. In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery. In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic. At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students…. Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters. Of course, 'niggardly' means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of 'niggardly,' (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance." What does all of this mean? It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind….. It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason… Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers. I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you…."

Washington Times Jerry Seper 3/22/99 Freeper A Whitewater Researcher "…EXCERPTS: "An Interior Department official who told a Senate committee this month the department's oversight of Indian trust funds was being properly administered and sufficiently funded took a contrary position in a confidential memo last year...Thomas Thompson, apparently changed his mind after being named to replace Special Trustee Paul Homan, his former boss, who oversaw the fund. Mr. Homan resigned amid accusa tions that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt stripped him of the independence, authority and funding he needed to do the job....Mr. Thompson, in a July 1998 memo...said he was "grateful" he did not run the program and outlined numerous concerns he had abou t the department's ability to implement the Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994. The act directs the department to oversee "effectively and efficiently" the fund and to provide the necessary budget to get the job done....An audit by the Arthur Anders en accounting firm said the BIA could not account for $2.4 billion in transactions …"

Washinton Times 4/1/99 Jerry Seper "... A former aide to President Clinton who warned against White House involvement in the Interior Department's denial of an Indian casino license has testified in an expanding grand jury probe. The investigation has broadened to include records subpoenaed from several key players, including a Miami businessman who owned a dog track that Wisconsin Chippewas wanted to convert to a casino to bolster their flagging economy. The businessman, Fred Havenick, has told independent counsel Carol Elder Bruce that Clinton-Gore Re-election Campaign officials were involved in denying the license, that a top campaign aide bragged about helping to kill the application by three Chippewa tribes, and that an Interior Department official told him "politics" was the reason. The grand jury is probing accusations that Mr. Clinton and White House officials -- including Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes and Deputy Counsel Bruce Lindsey -- ordered Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to deny the license in July 1995 after rival tribes, looking to protect their own gaming interests, promised $500,000 to Mr. Clinton's re-election...."

AP 6/7/99 "...A court-appointed investigator found the government still handles American Indian trust records carelessly more than three months after two Cabinet officials were held in contempt of court over them. In a report issued Monday, the official said trust documents are stored in ``patently substandard conditions'' at several Bureau of Indian Affairs offices he inspected recently. At Anadarko, Okla., records were kept in wooden sheds. Files were spilled loosely around and stuffed in unmarked boxes strewn among truck tires, the report said. Alan Balaran was appointed a special master in a lawsuit against the government after U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for delaying the turnover of trust records. The judge said he had ``never seen more egregious misconduct'' by the government. The lawsuit alleges the government has been mishandling the accounts for decades. They include 300,000 accounts held by individual Indians, subjects of the lawsuit, and an additional 1,600 tribal accounts worth $2.5 billion. The money includes lease revenue, royalties and court settlements. Balaran recommended the judge order safeguarding of the documents. ``The absence of an order affirmatively mandating the preservation of Indian trust records risks the possibility that the deficiencies ... will continue unchecked and that the opportunity for a meaningful accounting will be forever lost,'' Balaran wrote....."

Universal Press Syndicate 6/9/99 JOHN LEO "....LEFT-wing censorship is not yet a major issue, but observe the tide rising: campus speech codes and conduct codes monitoring "verbal behavior," the theft and destruction of dissenting college newspapers, government attempts to ban Indian team nicknames, campaigns to cancel or shout down speakers opposed to affirmative action, the increasing use of harassment policies to silence opponents or get them fired. If you wonder where the slippery slope leads, take a look at Canada, which is a bit ahead of the United States in sensitivity censorship. In Ontario, it's an offense to say or write anything that might incite someone to violate any of 15 listed grounds of discrimination. And under Canadian human rights legislation, truth is not a defense....."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 7/1/99 Jerry Seper "...Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt testified yesterday before a federal grand jury probing whether his 1995 denial of a casino license to three Wisconsin Indian tribes was based on promises by rival tribes to make campaign donations to President Clinton's 1996 re-election. His testimony came as independent counsel Carol Elder Bruce begins to wrap up a 14-month investigation into accusations that Mr. Babbitt's July 14, 1995, decision against three Chippewa tribes was the result of political influence. The Chippewas' application had been pending before the Interior Department for two years and had been approved by the department's regional Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mr. Babbitt's reversal set into motion a "campaign strategy" by anti-casino tribal leaders, who eventually gave $270,000 to the Democratic Party for the 1996 campaign. In a lawsuit filed after the license was denied, the Chippewas argued that the access of their rivals swayed Mr. Babbitt's decision, in particular because of promised campaign donations.....In a final draft of their report on campaign finance abuse, Republicans on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee concluded that Mr. Babbitt was not truthful. The report said Mr. Babbitt "had both Harold Ickes and political contributions on his mind on the day of the decision." "From all the circumstances, there appears to be a direct relationship between the activities of the Department of the Interior and contributions received by the [Democratic National Committee] and [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] from the opposition tribes," the report said.....The grand jury has heard testimony from Loretta Avent, a White House specialist on Indian affairs, who counseled Mr. Ickes on the "legal and political implications of our involvement." She said in an April 1995 memo it would be "disastrous" for the White House to be involved in any decision by Mr. Babbitt on the license. Mrs. Avent wrote that the issue should stay within the Interior Department, adding: "The press is just waiting for this kind of story. We don't want to give it to them." On the same day Mr. Babbitt denied the license, Patrick J. O'Connor, a lobbyist for the rival tribes, wrote in a diary that the tribes had begun their donation strategy. He outlined plans to contact Mr. Ickes, Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler and Terry McAuliffe, chief fund-raiser for the Clinton-Gore committee. In April 1995, Mr. O'Connor met Mr. Fowler and rival tribal leaders to discuss a "generic donation" to the DNC. The meeting occurred after Mr. O'Connor had spoken to Mr. Clinton about the license at a Minnesota fund-raiser....."

AP 8/10/99 H Josef Hebert "...A federal judge ordered the government Tuesday to pay more than $600,000 for failing to produce documents promptly in a lawsuit concerning the trouble-plagued Indian trust fund. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the payment is to cover "all expenses and reasonable attorney fees'' incurred by Indian plaintiffs because of government delay and misconduct in not providing records that detail trust fund mismanagement. Lamberth said that he was dismayed that taxpayers "will be forced to pay for the misconduct of their government's officials and attorneys.'' He said in his 45-page opinion he wished he could hold individual government attorneys liable but is precluded from doing so. The order does not address the merits of the class-action lawsuit brought by the Indians, who demand the court take over the trouble-plagued trust fund, overhaul its error-filled accounting system and make restitutions to Indians who lost money. The award of fees stems from a two-year period in which lawyers for the Indians were blocked repeatedly from obtaining documents on individual Indian accounts. The legal fees and other expenses, totaling $624,643.50 to be awarded to seven attorneys, cover from November, 1996, to January this year. "It is gratifying that the judge is holding the government accountable,'' said Jim McCarthy, spokesman for the Indians. "The Department of Interior's tactics of delay and denial and cover-up against American Indians will no longer be tolerated.'' ..."

Washington Weekly 8/16/99 Marvin Lee "...[Lamberth] His ruling of contempt of court against the "scofflaws" in the Clinton administration last February in the Bureau of Indian Affairs trustee lawsuit was a truly courageous act. He set the fine last week to $625,000 for the government's willful failure to produce documents he had ordered produced. Excuses offered by government attorneys included the almost Clintonian suggestion that documents had been so tainted by rodent droppings in a New Mexico warehouse that to disturb them would put department officials at a health risk. An audit by the accounting firm Arthur Andersen said the Bureau of Indian Affairs could not account for $2.4 billion in transactions involving the funds. Such ridiculously shabby practices by a federal government would never have passed muster in a banana republic, would they? The U.S. is slowly but surely sinking below the status of a banana republic in its internal government and legal affairs while outwardly presenting a healthy look with its stunning economy. Rare heroes like Judge Lamberth are fighting a Sisyphean fight in trying to prevent this slide...."