Indianz.Com
Citing the status of trust reform and the ongoing class action suit aimed
at correcting years of financial mismanagement, a federal judge has asked
a court official to continue investigating the Department of Interior for
at least another year.
In an order filed in federal court yesterday, U.S. District Judge Royce
Lamberth said he wants to extend the term of his court monitor Joseph S.
Kieffer III. A former military intelligence specialist, Kieffer has been
reporting on efforts to fix the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust for a
year.
The role would continue unless the Bush administration cites, and Lamberth
accepts, serious objections. Attorneys representing 300,000 Indian
beneficiaries whose $500 million in annual assets are at the heart of the
lawsuit support an extension of Kieffer’s term, they told Indianz.Com.
Kieffer was appointed to his post one year ago this month after an
internal memo raised doubts about the progress of the federal government.
Dom Nessi, the Bureau of Indian Affairs former chief information officer
and a former manager of a trust reform project, wrote in a memo that
efforts were “slowly, but surely imploding.”
As a result, the plaintiffs wanted Lamberth to consider holding contempt
proceedings. But to stave off charges, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton
and her defense team “threw open the doors,” as one government attorney
later put it, and welcomed Kieffer’s involvement in the debacle.
The mood changed significantly as Kieffer produced reports highly critical
of both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Every major aspect of trust
reform, from the failure to move forward with an historical accounting
owed to the beneficiaries to the status of a $40 million trust accounting
now put on hold, was covered.
But in a huge fumble, the government’s defense team never raised major
objections to Kieffer’s work. Although the attorneys responsible were
later fired from the case, their actions came back to haunt the Interior
as the reports formed the basis for four of five contempt charges laid
against Norton and Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb.
Norton risks much the same in the future should Kieffer stay on. Also, the
plaintiffs have asked Lamberth to appoint a receiver for the IIM trust, a
position Kieffer could easily fill if he continues to work for the court.
Kieffer’s $250-an-hour rate is being footed by the government. His monthly
bills have reached $40,000 to $50,000, depending on how much time he
committed to the case.
Lamberth has yet to issue his findings on the charges. The 29-day contempt
trial concluded February 21.
Comments or objections on Kieffer’s renewal are due April 11, Lamberth
said in the order.
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