And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
12/23/98 -- 4:07 PM
Babbitt, Rubin threatened with
contempt over Indian trust
http://www.tampabayonline.net/news/news1010.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge is threatening to
hold Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin in contempt for the government's
delay in producing records of Indian trust funds.
The Interior and Treasury departments are being sued over
the mishandling of 300,000 Indian accounts worth an
estimated $500 million. Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs
was ordered two years ago to turn over statements, checks
and other documents on accounts held by five Indians who
are the lead plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit. So far,
only a small amount of the documents have been
produced.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who has frequently
clashed with the Clinton administration, last week set a
contempt hearing for Babbitt and Rubin for Jan. 11.
``They've meddled with the wrong person here as far as
stonewalling and ignoring his orders,'' an attorney for the
Indians, Robert Peregoy, said Wednesday.
In a separate case, Lamberth on Tuesday accused
Commerce Department officials of illegally destroying
evidence in connection with charges that the agency sold
slots on trade missions for donations to Democratic
candidates. He's the same judge who earlier fined the
administration $286,000 for making inaccurate statements
about the makeup of its health care task force.
At a Dec. 15 hearing in the Indian case, government
lawyers gave him a variety of reasons for failing to turn
over the records, including possible viral contamination of
two storage facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and rodent
infestation at another site.
The government hopes to have the material by the hearing
next month, said Ed Cohen, an Interior Department
lawyer.
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