WASHINGTON ? During yet another hearing in the Individual Indian Money-trust case, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth questioned why no one seems to take his contempt orders seriously.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton and a number of other government officials were issued a strong warning that they too may be held in contempt for actions relating to trust reform and the on-going litigation over the trust accounts. During the hearing in the class action Cobell vs. Norton, Lamberth harshly criticized federal officials and set a Nov. 30 date for the government to begin defending itself against possible contempt findings.
He also set a Nov. 15 deadline for the government to file court papers after a new team of government lawyers appeared seeking a 45-day delay, claiming that they had only a few days to review the 5-year-old case. Attorneys with the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resource Division were working on the litigation before they were suddenly pulled from the case. Attorneys with the Department’s Civil Division are now in charge.
“And why is it that no one seems to take these contempt orders seriously?” Lamberth asked.
He offered further strong words about the conduct of federal officials.
“I hope when the government files, they’ll tell me who’s in charge of trust reform. Allegedly it’s the secretary, but she sure doesn’t act like it. I’ll just have to see what she tells me.”
During the hearing Lamberth cited a variety of instances from a court monitor’s reports which show Interior officials lied about their progress on trust reform. He specifically referenced two examples of government officials acting in a way he characterized as contemptuous.
He said that officials in the Clinton administration held a meeting where an agenda item ordered employees not to inform the court that the computer system handling trust reform was not working. Lamberth said that fact alone is contemptuous. In another example, Lamberth focused on the decision by both the Clinton and Bush administrations to use statistical sampling to reconcile tribal trust accounts.
He directly criticized Secretary Norton for supporting sampling as one of her first actions as secretary. Lamberth said Norton did it in “absolute violation of my order.
“Her first action was so contemptuous I don’t know what we’re going to try,” Lamberth said.
He criticized Norton for her recent decision to sign off on a false court-ordered report, which Interior filed a month later after a number of Interior officials, including the special trustee, refused to support its findings.
“When you look at what Secretary Norton signed, I don’t know how she is going to explain this to me,” Lamberth said. “What was she doing? What was she thinking? Did she think about it at all.”
Secretary Norton is just one of approximately 50 Interior and Justice officials and attorneys cited by Cobell plaintiffs for potential contempt charges. Judge Lamberth already found former Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover in contempt of court for failing to comply in a full and timely manner with an earlier discovery order in the case.
Lamberth said that he would consider personal fines and confinement for government officials if they were found in contempt again.