Confederate Memorial Assoc. says Contra connection could scuttle Roberts

[Uncle Joe]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/

Contact: Robert Hughes of the Confederate Memorial Association, 202-483-5700, [e-mail], Web: http://www.confederate.org

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A Washington association executive has called for an investigation into the role of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts when he represented the National Credit Union Administration, a regulatory agency of the federal government. He charged that there was a bizarre intervention by the NCUA to quash a subpoena for a personal account while Roberts was representing the group.

John Edward Hurley, president of the Confederate Memorial Association which owned and operated the only Confederate museum in the nation's capital, said that ongoing litigation against his association had been traced to Contra supporters and present and former employees in the general counsels office of the National Credit Union Administration. Moreover, Hurley said that evidence indicated that a $500,000 political slush fund was being covered up.

Hurley said a court order approving a $15,000 fraudulent legal bill, after being issued nearly two years ago, was mysteriously submitted to the bank last week. A two-year lapse in collecting court ordered fees is unheard of, and Hurley contends that this shows that the White House is concerned about illegal NCUA activities being exposed while Roberts represented the group.

A "Freedom Fighter" fundraiser was scheduled after Roberts had made several recommendations on the subject while he was in the White House Counsels office. Moreover, Carl "Spitz" Channell and Richard Miller, who were raising private funds for the Contras, had met in the White House to ask support for the Contras (as the Walsh Iran/Contra Report noted). After the Roberts memos counseled that Contra fundraising should be held outside the White House, a "Freedom Fighter Night" was scheduled on July 12, 1986 to be held in October of 1986 at Confederate Memorial Hall. Hurley said that he cancelled the October event. However, prior to this, a previous reception at the Hall had been attended by White House personnel. Hurley added that the invitation to the October event was sent from the Capital Yacht Club.

Roberts represented the National Credit Union Administration when he was with Hogan and Hartson. In 1997, Roberts argued the NCUA case before the Supreme Court, which dealt with expanding the banking market for credit unions. In that case, Robert M. Fenner was listed as counsel for the NCUA with Roberts.

Hurley said that Fenner had employed David Eno as the head of his fraud hotline operation at NCUA. According to Hurley, Eno was a commander of the Jefferson Davis Camp No. 305 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that sued the Confederate Memorial Association. Kirk Lyons, an attorney who has represented the KKK and the Aryan Nation, is an officer in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Eno and Richard Hines, another commander of the Jefferson Davis Camp and the husband of White House Domestic Policy advisor Patricia Hines, were behind the litigation against the Confederate Memorial Association.

Hurley said that the mysterious political funding that was used in the litigation against his organization was also used for the annual Confederate ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. He charged that the funds were part of a secret political slush fund that was wired overnight through a bank in Charlotte by Department of Energy attorney Stephen Page Smith. The funds were traced to the Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union in Gaithersburg, Maryland which was regulated by Roberts' client, the NCUA. .

A subpoena for this account was quashed by D.C. Superior Court Judge John H. Bayly. The motion to quash was submitted to Judge Bayly by attorney Stephen Bisker, a former employee of NCUA's Robert Fenner and current contractor for the NCUA who works for a major credit union auditing firm. .

Hurley also believes that another $500,000 of illegal political donations from the American Defense Institute may now be in the account, noting that attorney Thomas L. O'Neill was on the ADI board and was another attorney litigating against Mr. Hurley's association.

Alan Rothenberg, yet another attorney litigating against the Confederate Memorial Association, is the treasurer of the U.S. Premier Federal Credit Union. The president of the USPFCU was Randolph Earnest, assistant to Ambassador David A. Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the State Department and the former executive director of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney, a group that worked with Roberts during the 2000 election.

Roberts also represented the National Mining Association. Hurley say that Herbert Harmon, the chief lawyer in the massive litigation against the Confederate Memorial Association, uses his home as a contact address for the Rio Tinto mining operation, the largest in the world.

The high-profile Confederate ceremonies in Arlington National Cemetery are held in June and are attended by such notables as Richard B. Abell, a former Department of Justice Assistant Secretary in charge of the Office of Justice Programs and current magistrate for the U.S. Court of Claims; Nicholas D. Ward, who serves on the Probate and Fiduciary Rules Advisory Committee of the D.C. Superior Court; and Robert Wilkie, who currently serves on the National Security Council staff at the White House.

Another prominent lawyer supporting the legal action against Hurley is Col. Jeffrey Addicott, former senior legal counsel for the Special Forces and current director of the Center for Terrorism Law.

When Judge Bayly jailed Hurley in 1997 for objecting to the quashing of the subpoena for the Mid-Atlantic account which Hurley believes to be at the behest of the NCUA, Hurley sold the century-old D.C. museum. The strange motion to quash "by someone other than the holder of the account shows a massive fraud and an obstruction of justice in his case," Hurley said.

Hurley cited a Maryland trial that continues this week as an example of the perilous consequences of dealing with white supremacists. The trial involves the largest arson in the history of the state. All of the burned homes in Charles County belonged to blacks. The chief witness against the Confederate Memorial Association was Lewis Doherty, who is now listed as an organizer of the neo-Nazi National Alliance that was distributing white supremacist literature in Charles County prior to the arsons.

Hurley is calling for a complete investigation of John Roberts connection with the planned "Freedom Fighter" reception, the National Credit Union Administration, the National Mining Association and the Rio Tinto mining operation. He said that all the facts about Roberts in these matters should be known before there is "a secular canonization of this man for the highest court."

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/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

[Uncle Joe]

1. I wonder if this is related to Melman suddenly coming out

and apologizing for the Republicans playing the race card after all these years?