FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 14, 2001 www.indiantrust.com INDIAN PLAINTIFFS WILL SEEK PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION TO PROTECT TRUST ACCOUNTING DATA, SPEED UP CHECKS FOR INDIVIDUAL TRUST BENEFICIARIES WASHINGTON, D.C. - The lead attorney for Indian plaintiffs told U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth today that he will file papers this weekend asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction that would force the Interior Department to distribute trust checks immediately and impose court supervision of its computer operations. Court-imposed oversight of Interior's IT systems will speed up the issuing of checks to Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust beneficiaries as well as tribes, while safeguarding trust accounting data, said lawyer Dennis M. Gingold. Lamberth will take up the preliminary injunction issue at 10 a.m. Monday, December 17. Lamberth signed a temporary restraining order last week, ordering Interior to cut all Internet access to computer systems and individual PCs holding IIM accounting data. He was acting on a 154-page report by a court investigator that documented that the IIM data are exposed to Internet hackers and other unauthorized users. Interior responded by cutting its entire Internet connection, allowing web sites for dozens of agencies to go dark. Today's developments followed the collapse of a consent agreement negotiated by the two sides. Government attorneys insisted that a contempt charge against Interior Secretary Gale Norton, based on the computer security failures, be dropped in exchange for consenting to court oversight. The charge is one of five against Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. Earlier today, a senior trust official, Thomas M. Thompson, completed the first week of testimony in the contempt proceedings. Thompson testified that by May 2001, he and his boss, Special Trustee Thomas Slonaker, had stopped verifying the accuracy of quarterly reports that Norton submitted to Judge Lamberth. "I learned that the term 'verify' had legal significance, representing that certain actions had been taken," Thompson said. "Mr. Slonaker and I knew that that was not the case." Thompson will be back on the witness stand on Monday, December 17. #####