Trade Mission Data Withheld, Official Says
Washington Post
By George Lardner Jr.
Tuesday , July 11, 2000 ; A09
A veteran Commerce Department official said in an affidavit
yesterday that records concerning contributions to the Democratic
Party by participants in trade missions and other documents were
wrongfully withheld despite Freedom of Information Act requests
and litigation demanding their production.
The official, Sonya Stewart, said lawyers in the Office of
General Counsel (OGC) at Commerce "improperly assumed and
exercised the final authority" to withhold or release documents,
at times in consultation with the White House.
Stewart, whose 15-page affidavit was filed as part of a lawsuit
brought by Judicial Watch, said she was in charge of all FOIA
matters in the department until recently as director of executive
budgeting and assistance management in the Office of the
Secretary of Commerce.
Stewart, now with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, said the FOIA staff's efforts to comply with the
law were "thwarted and obstructed" by Commerce Department
officials including the former head of the Office of Business
Liaison. Stewart said the general counsel's office claimed to
have "lost" some documents that were later found in the OGC safe.
Stewart also said she was told by a career official from the
Office of Business Liaison, George Grafeld, that he had seen
diskettes labeled "contributions/trade missions" that were never
turned over to Judicial Watch and that he was aware of
"fundraising letters" sent to trade mission participants by the
then-director of the office.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth concluded in a 1998
ruling that Commerce officials systematically concealed and
destroyed documents that might have shed light on whether seats
on overseas trade missions were used as rewards for Democratic
Party contributions. Stewart said she made efforts to ensure
that a "second search" for records after the judge's ruling was
conducted properly but was thwarted again.
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