Environmentalists and the lead plaintiff in the Indian Trust Fund lawsuit against the Interior Department want to see former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles jailed for lying to Congress in the Jack Abramoff investigation.
Sending Griles to jail will send a message to government officials and the public that such actions will not be tolerated in the future, Friends of the Earth and Elouise Cobell said in separate letters to Judge Ellen Huvelle of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Huvelle is set to sentence Griles on Tuesday afternoon.
"Hopefully, your actions and words will now send a message that he will not forget," Cobell wrote. "It is time for government officials to be held accountable."
Huvelle should require Griles to cooperate with DOJ, or impose the maximum of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine if he refuses, wrote Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "Doing so would send a needed signal that corruption at the highest levels of the Department and by other public officials will not be tolerated."
The Justice Department is asking a 10-month split sentence, including jail time and a $25,000 fine. Griles is seeking three months' home confinement, a $15,000 fine and 500 hours of community service, half of which would be as an executive with Wonderful Outdoor World (WOW). WOW is run by the American Recreation Coalition in association with Interior, the Forest Service and corporations including the Walt Disney Co. (Greenwire, June 15).
"The number of investigations into possible corruption at the Department and the failure of Mr. Griles to be forthcoming about his activities underscores the need to ensure that the full truth come out, both with respect to the Abramoff investigation and any other potential matters," Blackwelder wrote.
Ninety-one of Griles' supporters asked Huvelle for leniency, including former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, two Reagan-era Interior secretaries, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R), Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.), coal industry executives and former Wyoming GOP Senate nominee Tom Sansonetti.
As deputy secretary, Griles was heavily involved in the trust fund lawsuit -- now Cobell v. Kempthorne -- in 2001 and 2002. While several of the letters sent to Huvelle on Griles' behalf praise his actions in the case, Cobell said Griles stood in the way of resolving the now 11-year-old case. "His legacy is one of prolonging the litigation and doing little to address the underlying trust problems," Cobell wrote.
Huvelle entered the Cobell and Blackwelder letters into the record this week, along with a third letter identified to the public as written only by "Citizen," reacting to Griles' request to work as an executive with Wonderful Outdoor World. "Mr. Griles should serve behind bars, and any public service should be of a menial nature that benefits all of the public -- not an organization that supports his particular beliefs," the letter states.
In a filing earlier this week, Griles' attorneys say the connection between the former deputy director and Abramoff is overblown.
"Mr. Griles had an open door policy for anyone who wanted to raise an issue with him and he was responsive to many people," his attorneys wrote. "Nonetheless, the DOJ characterizes every instance of Mr. Griles' returning a call to Mr. Abramoff or referring him to another official as a 'favor' and seeks to create a nefarious overtone that is absurd and divorced from reality" (Greenwire, June 20).
Click here to view the Cobell letter.
Click here to view the Friends of the Earth letter.
Click here to view the "citizen" letter.
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