FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2002 www.indiantrust.com COBELL PLAINTIFFS CONCLUDE NORTON CONTEMPT TRIAL WITH PLEA TO COURT TO “END THIS NIGHTMARE” OF TRUST MISMANAGEMENT AND GOVERNMENT’S LIES “You Were Duped. The Plaintiffs Were Smoked.” WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Cobell plaintiffs argued today that a federal judge should do “whatever this court needs to do to end this nightmare” by holding Interior Secretary Gale Norton in contempt for failing to bring about court-ordered reform of the multi-billion dollar Individual Indian Monies trust. In a two and a half hour closing argument, lead plaintiffs’ attorney Dennis M. Gingold hammered away at Norton’s failure to fulfill her responsibilities as trustee for 500,000 IIM trust beneficiaries, likening the government’s conduct to an infamous 1964 murder case in which bystanders saw and heard a woman being attacked, but did nothing. “This trust is in crisis,” Gingold said. “Something has to be done now. We can’t turn our backs, we can’t shut our doors, we can’t close our windows. People are being mugged by the Interior Department every day.” Norton faces five counts of contempt for failing to provide IIM beneficiaries with an accounting of their money, submitting false reports to the court on Interior’s supposed progress on trust reform, and failing to protect the security of trust funds and accounting data held in the department’s computer systems. Gingold singled out repeated instances in which both senior officials and attorneys at Interior and the Justice Department misled U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth about trust reform. “Everything that’s been reported to you, your honor, has been false,” Gingold said. “The documentation [of falsehoods] in this case is overwhelming.” Gingold also criticized Norton’s handling of IIM checks for thousands of beneficiaries after Lamberth ordered unprotected Interior computer systems disconnected from the Internet on Dec. 5. “Too much harm has occurred. Too many people have suffered,” Gingold said. “And the court has been duped,” Lamberth added. Lamberth expressed anger that a Justice Department lawyer had misled him on Wednesday (2/20) about whether some IIM checks were now being processed by Interior. “I had the impression that grazing checks had gone out,” the judge said. He said he was “dumbfounded” later in the day when Tex Hall, president of the National Congress of American Indians, testified in the contempt trial that he was due five checks for grazing and had received none. “It’s a word game” the government is playing,” Lamberth said. “It’s beyond belief how the court ever gets control of this.” Lamberth also expressed frustration that Norton has failed to provide computer security for IIM trust funds and data, which total more than $500 million a year. “Most shocking of all is the amount of money at risk,” the judge said. “How the trustee [Norton] can get in that position almost boggles my mind.” Lamberth also said he felt “duped” that Interior officials had told him a new $40 million computer system would be the centerpiece of trust reform. An Interior report months later said only a portion of the system was working. “As soon as I read that report,” Lamberth said, “I knew I’d been duped. That’s when I knew this case was going to go on forever.” “You were duped,” Gingold told the judge. “The plaintiffs were smoked.” Final legal papers in the contempt trial are due to be filed Feb. 28. Lamberth did not indicate when he might issue a decision. ##### To subscribe to the Indian Trust mailing list, please paste the following link into your browser: http://www.indiantrust.com/