FROM THE ARCHIVE

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Judge to rule on court monitor reports
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2001

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth cut short proceedings in Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's contempt trial today, sending everyone home after 45 minutes of private conferencing and brief banter among the government and attorneys representing 300,000 American Indian beneficiaries.

Foregoing yet another day of trying testimony involving witness Tommy Thompson, Lamberth said he would convene a hearing tomorrow morning in order to consider the admissibility of reports by court monitor Joseph S. Kieffer III. Kieffer's four reports and a supplemental have provided the basis for Norton's contempt trial and thus have been significantly challenged by her defense team.

In order to resolve the issue, Lamberth will consider a motion by the plaintiffs to have the reports admitted into evidence in their entirety. The reports deal with a failure to conduct an historical accounting of the individual Indian trust, the dismal state of a $40 million trust accounting system and a closely related subproject and a quarterly report characterized as "misleading" and "untruthful."

The plaintiffs were prepared to argue the motion today but Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Nagle asked for an extension until Thursday, telling Lamberth he and his team had only seen the document this morning.

Lamberth instead ordered the government to provide its response by tomorrow.

The plaintiffs also want certain documents Kieffer obtained during his investigations of the Department of Interior admitted into the record.

Thompson, the second highest-ranking trust official at the Interior, had been going over in detail the reports and related documents with the plaintiffs.

Get the Motion:
Plaintiffs’ Brief on Why the Court Monitor Reports as a Whole and VirtuallyAll Evidence Contained Therein Are AdmissibleandWhy Defendants Have Waived the Attorney-client Privilege with Respect toDocuments Provided to the Court Monitor (12/18)

Today on Indianz.Com:
Judge orders Interior reconnect (12/18)
Norton ordered to submit trust fund report (12/18)

Relevant Links:
Doubletree Hotel Minneapolis Airport at the Mall - http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=MSPFTDT
Indian Trust, Department of Interior - http://www.doi.gov/indiantrust
Office of the Special Trustee - http://www.ost.doi.gov
Trust Management Improvement Project - http://www.doi.gov/bia/trust/tmip.htm
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com