Judge asks why Interior Secretary Norton shouldn’t be held in contempt in Indian royalties case
The Associated Press
By: Robert Gehrke
Associated Press Writer
February 21, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A government attorney acknowledged inadequacies in status reports on the Interior Department’s efforts to fix its management of royalties from Indian lands. Still, Interior Secretary Gale Norton should not be held in contempt, he said Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who has held two other Cabinet officials in contempt in the case, said there were “material omissions” in the reports that concealed major problems with efforts to fix the $500 million-a-year fund.
In occasionally tense exchanges during closing arguments in Norton’s trial, Lamberth grilled Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Nagle on why those omissions did not constitute contempt.
“In fact they did not comply with my order on their face,” Lamberth said. “They did not report on the status of trust reform and their efforts to bring themselves into compliance.” Nagle conceded the department’s reports often were unclear or incomplete. But he argued there was not an intentional pattern of deception and the omissions do not meet the legal requirements for civil contempt. The contempt charges against Norton and Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Neal A. McCaleb stem from a 5 1/2-year-old lawsuit brought by Indians. They are seeking compensation for the government’s acknowledged mismanagement of royalties for gas exploration, timber harvesting and cattle grazing on their land. The lawsuit claims 300,000 Indians together lost more than $10 billion. The government disputes the amount.
Lamberth previously held in contempt Clinton administration Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. They were fined $600,000 for not disclosing the destruction of documents related to the case. The federal government paid the fines.
Thursday’s arguments marked the end of 29 days of testimony in Norton’s trial. If Lamberth finds she willfully misled him, he could impose fines and potentially jail time, although that is unlikely. It also could clear the way for Lamberth to consider the plaintiffs’ request to strip Interior of its trust management responsibilities.
Indian attorney Dennis Gingold said the judge needed to intervene to “end the nightmare” for thousands of Indians.
“We’ve got a group of people being mugged every day by the executive branch of the United States government, and you’ve got to do something to stop it,” Gingold told Lamberth. “The trust is in crisis.”
The trust fund was established in 1887, when Indians were assigned parcels of land by the government. The Interior Department was supposed to manage use of those lands and collect and distribute proceeds from oil and gas exploration, timber harvesting and cattle grazing.
In 1999, Lamberth ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the Interior Department to fix the system and piece together how much the Indians are owed.
A series of scathing reports by a pair of court watchdogs said little has been done to comply. One report also found poor computer security at the department put millions of dollars of Indian money at risk from hackers. “How a trustee can get into this position of allowing this amount of money to be at risk _ it almost boggles the mind,” Lamberth said.
Lamberth will accept written arguments from the attorneys next week and likely rule next month.
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