FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2001 www.indiantrust.com INTERIOR STALLED ON INDIVIDUAL TRUST REFORM EFFORTS, HOPING JUDGE'S ORDER WOULD BE REJECTED ON APPEAL Activities in 14 Months After '99 Lamberth Decision "Not a Legitimate Effort" WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senior Interior and Justice Department aides believed a federal judge lacked authority to order an historical accounting for individual Indian trust accountholders and intentionally stalled on performing the task, hoping the judge's decision would be overturned by a federal appeals court, a trust official testified today. Thomas M. Thompson, who as principal deputy Special Trustee oversees trust reforms ordered by Congress and by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, described more than a year of growing tensions between Interior and Justice officials and the Office of Special Trustee (OST) as the two sides feuded over interpretations of Lamberth's Dec. 21, 1999 order and what they should tell him about Interior's strategy. Thompson was testifying on the second day of a contempt trial for Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb. Neither official was in court. Although today's testimony largely covered the year before she took office, Norton inherited the obligation to comply with the court's order to reform the Individual Indian Monies (IIM) trust, perform an historical accounting for Indian trust beneficiaries and report her progress in quarterly reports to the Lamberth. Thompson testified that shortly after the 1999 Lamberth ruling, Interior officials took a series of actions that were "not a legitimate effort" to comply with the court's order to conduct an historical accounting. "There was no office, no staff, no budget, no plan," Thompson said. Instead, he said, officials were stalling, hoping Lamberth's decision would be reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Thompson also testified that Interior arbitrarily limited the collection of trust accounting records to 1994 and later, although the judge had ordered an accounting for "all funds" over the 120-year life of the trust. "They just made that up over at Interior?" said Lamberth. "They just weren't going to do it until I got affirmed [by the appeals court]." "Or until you got overturned," Thompson added. "They certainly challenged your authority." The Appeals Court upheld Lamberth's ruling unanimously on Feb. 23, 2001. Thompson testified there were sharp disagreements between Interior and Justice officials, who took a narrow view of the court order, and the Office of Special Trustee. "I'm the bad client who people didn't like to deal with because I questioned their steps," Thompson said. "We took the view that we needed to be the ombudsman for the trust beneficiaries. The Justice Department protected the interests of the United States. They didn't always coincide." Much of today's testimony centered on statistical sampling, a scheme proposed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to take the place of the full historical accounting ordered by Lamberth. Although sampling would be less complex, difficult and costly, Thompson noted, he and others in OST believed strongly that it did not comply with Lamberth's ruling. Shortly after she took office - and only days after the appeals court's ruling upholding Lamberth - Norton appeared before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and embraced statistical sampling, a decision she apparently has since abandoned. The contempt charges against Norton and McCaleb allege that they have failed to move forward on trust reform and the historical accounting, failed to repair severe computer security problems for trust accounting data and have submitted false reports to the court about Interior's supposed progress in complying with court orders. Thompson's testimony resumes Wednesday, Dec. 12. #####