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.

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