Interior Secretary Norton to Face Charges Of Contempt in Indian Trust-Fund Case
The Wall Street Journal
By: John J. Fialka
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
November 29, 2001
WASHINGTON — A federal district judge ordered Interior Secretary Gale Norton to stand trial next week on charges that she acted in contempt of court for allegedly filing false information regarding efforts to overhaul a $500 million trust fund. The Interior Department manages the fund as a banking system for individual Indians, with income derived from use of their land.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth said the contempt allegations also apply to Assistant Interior Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb, who also is to stand trial. The judge’s action follows reports by court-appointed monitors asserting that under Ms. Norton, the department has made little progress in replacing a faulty accounting system that Indian plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit say has cost billions in lost assets.
If she is found in contempt, Secretary Norton will be the third cabinet official to face the wrath of Judge Lamberth. In October 1999, he found two Clinton administration officials, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, to be in contempt in the case, which was initiated in 1996.
The Interior Department had no immediate response to the judge’s order for a contempt trial, scheduled to begin Monday. Last month, Secretary Norton attempted to mollify the judge by establishing a new office to oversee the trust-fund accounts, which were managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, although the money is held by the Treasury Department. The accounts are part of a banking system established by Congress in the 19th century for Indian reservations that had no banks. The accounts hold and disburse income for about 300,000 Indians annually.
In his order, Judge Lamberth suggested Secretary Norton may be on difficult legal ground because her lawyers missed deadlines to contest three reports made by a court-appointed monitor that charged, among other things, that the department’s descriptions of its efforts to set up a computerized accounting system were exaggerated and misleading.
Dennis M. Gingold, lead attorney for the Indians, said the judge’s action “demonstrates that the secretary of interior is unfit to remain as trustee for the individual Indian trust accounts.” If she is held in contempt, he said, Judge Lamberth should put the trust funds under a court-appointed receiver until the case is settled.
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