-Caveat Lector-
You have to wonder if something happened in this administration
to part of the 2.4 billion that can't be accounted for and the
tracks are to fresh. 2.4 billion is a lot of bucks to loose track
of even over a number of years.
Published in Washington, D.C. 5am -- August 11, 1999
www.washtimes.com
Babbitt and Rubin 'fined' $625,000 for their 'misdeeds'
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A judge ordered the government yesterday to pay $625,000 for the
"disobedience" of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former
Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin in withholding documents of a
lawsuit involving the mismanagement of Indian trust funds.
In a 47-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth
angrily accused Mr. Babbitt and Mr. Rubin and their government
attorneys of disobeying his November 1996 order to turn over the
records in a suit brought by the Native American Rights Fund,
saying they "covered up their disobedience through semantics and
strained, unilateral, self-serving interpretations of their own
duties."
Judge Lamberth said the $625,000 judgment was the "only fair
result" given the manner in which Mr. Babbitt, Mr. Rubin and the
lawyers conducted themselves in refusing to turn over the
records.
He said their "contumacious misdeeds" wasted the time of Native
American Rights Fund attorneys trying to get information they
were entitled to, and of the court, which he said was subjected
to "needless hearings on document production."
The judge said he was "aware of the unfortunate consequences" in
that the money would be paid by taxpayers.
"Ultimately these taxpayers will be forced to pay for the
misconduct of their government's officials and their government's
attorneys," he said. "This is a troublesome concept for the
court. In this judge's view, the American taxpayers should not
continue to be forced to bear the burden of these types of
misdeeds.
"Instead, as in the case in the private sector, these attorneys
and officials themselves should bear individual responsibility
for their actions," he said.
But Judge Lamberth said he is forbidden to assess the judgment on
an individual basis because the government's attorneys had
removed themselves and the individual officials they represented
from a show-cause order demanding production of the documents. He
said that left only their client -- the government -- "in the
path of liability."
"Although the government must be held accountable for the actions
of its officials and attorneys, the court has a growing
sensitivity toward these burdens being passed along to the people
whom the government serves," he said. "In the future, this court
may be forced to ensure that government attorneys and officials
are at least within the potential group of persons who may be
held liable as a result of their own misdeeds."
Interior spokesman Tim Ahern said the department viewed the
decision as "reasonable," but did not elaborate. He had no
comment on the judge's concerns that taxpayers would be forced to
pay the bill. Mr. Rubin was not available for comment.
Jim McCarthy, spokesman for the Indian fund, said the
organization was "gratified" by the ruling.
He said it sent a "strong message" to the Interior Department
that its "long-held strategy of delay, denial and deception was
no longer going to be tolerated by the judge or by American
Indians."
"The way the government has conducted this case should shock
anyone with a basic familiarity with the law," Mr. McCarthy said.
"It has literally taken the Indians years to hold these guys
accountable. The government sought to delay the trial to exhaust
our resources. There was no other legal purpose."
Judge Lamberth issued the contempt citations in February after
Mr. Babbitt and Mr. Rubin, along with Assistant Interior
Secretary Kevin Gover, refused to produce trust-fund records,
canceled checks and other documents demanded by the court. Mr.
Babbitt and Mr. Rubin were named in the class-action suit filed
by the Indian fund accusing Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs
of mismanagement.
In his contempt order, Judge Lamberth said he found "clear and
convincing evidence" that Mr. Babbitt, Mr. Rubin and Mr. Gover
disobeyed his order, although he noted that Mr. Rubin's
involvement came because he "totally delegated his responsibility
to others and they have miserably failed to comply with this
court's orders."
"The court is deeply disappointed that any litigant would fail to
obey orders for production of documents, and then conceal and
cover up that disobedience with outright false statements that
the court then relied upon," the judge said. "But when that
litigant is the federal government, the misconduct is even more
troubling. I have never seen more egregious misconduct by the
federal government."
Judge Lamberth had sought the records and other materials
involving more than 300,000 individual accounts and 2,000 tribal
accounts managed by the Interior and Treasury departments.
The departments manage money from, among other sources, land
settlements, royalties from minerals and other resources, and
companies that use Indian land. Officials have been unable to
produce accounting records or statements to verify how much cash
has been collected.
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.
The judge ordered the departments to turn over all documents in
the case to allow Indian fund attorneys to prepare for trial. The
departments never complied, giving the judge several reasons for
the delay -- including an Interior claim that some records had
been so tainted by rodent droppings in a New Mexico warehouse
that to disturb them would put department officials at a health
risk.
Judge Lamberth has heard final arguments and could rule this
month on the Indian rights-fund suit.
Copyright � 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
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