Analysis: Another Way to Save Elian
Jack Thompson. NewsMax.com. Tuesday, June 20, 2000
A Miami immigration lawyer called me today to relate all the mistakes Team Coffey has made in the Elian tragedy.
More importantly, she tells me what still can be done to save Elian.
Here it is in a nutshell:
George Fowler is a New Orleans attorney who was part of Team Coffey but broke off from Kendall Coffey's sinking ship to file a separate lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal district court in an attempt to prove that because Cuba is a gross violator of human rights, as determined by both
the Organization of American States and the United Nations, then no person can be returned to Cuba until those human rights violations are stopped.
This lawsuit's approach has a far greater chance of succeeding, particularly since Team Coffey, according to this immigration lawyer, foolishly waived all of Elian's constitutional issues at the trial level in Miami.
Further, if the human rights violations as determined by the U.N. and the OAS are adopted as true by the court, then this is no longer an asylum issue, which the Clinton administration has predetermined would turn on the age of the asylum applicant.
It is a human rights case. If the human rights violations have occurred, then no one, the argument would go, can be legally returned to Cuba, regardless of age.
This legal expert tells me she is standing by, ready to assist anyone, including Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch, in this litigation already pending in Washington.
If the court there likes this argument, it can enter an injunction preventing Elian from leaving the country, regardless of what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta does.
This conflict between the two courts then would be resolved by the United States Supreme Court, which could push this matter beyond January 20, at which time a new president and attorney general could give this boy the hearing he deserves.
Judicial Watch: INS-Cuba Deal Voids Elian Return
Judicial Watch . Monday, June 19, 2000. NewsMax.com.
WASHINGTON – Judicial Watch reports that it has uncovered documents, pursuant to court order, showing there is no valid policy on deciding Elian's request for an asylum hearing, but that instead the Immigration and Naturalization Service had, in an apparent deal, decided to become the de
facto agent of the Cuban regime.
Accordingly, the INS decision to return Elian to Cuba is void, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals must reconsider its prior order, says Judicial Watch.
The documents underpinning this argument were not discovered until recently, and that is why Judicial Watch is filing an amicus curiae brief with the 11th Circuit. The lawyers of the Miami relatives did not raise these arguments in the brief they filed Thursday, says Judicial Watch, a public
interest law firm that battles corruption in government.
Analysis: Kirkland & Ellis Can't Represent Elian
Jack Thompson. Saturday, June 17, 2000
Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm with offices in Washington, has now joined the Miami legal team headed by Kendall Coffey. Kirkland & Ellis wrote and filed the appeal Thursday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
The fact that Coffey only decided to bring in heavyweight legal help after he lost the case in both district court and the first round at the Appeals Court in Atlanta should have been a screaming red flag pointing to his desire not to save Elian.
Be that as it may, powerhouse Kirkland & Ellis has now joined the case. This move by Coffey sounds great.
But there's just one problem: Kirkland & Ellis cannot represent the boy.
Here's why:
Florida Bar Rule states in Rule 4-1.7(b): "A lawyer [or his/her firm] shall not represent a client if the lawyer's exercise of independent professional judgment in the representation of that client may be materially limited by ... the lawyer's [or the firm's] own interest, unless ... the
client consents after consultation."
Kirkland & Ellis, as documented here at NewsMax.com and elsewhere, has long-standing ties to the Democratic Party. As proof of those ties is the fact that Kirkland & Ellis has donated thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.
Hillary is part of the adminstration that seized this boy and wants to send him back to Cuba. She has publicly stated in her Senate campaign that she wants Elian returned.
How can Kirkland & Ellis – a law firm that now financially supports Hillary's campaign – take the lead in protecting the legal interests of Elian and the Miami family and also do battle with the Clinton administration?
Any honest legal expert will tell you that Kirkland & Ellis has a classic, disabling conflict of interest that prevents the firm ethically from being anywhere near this case.
It mirrors a similar conflict of interest that Kendall Coffey has. As a former Reno appointee and a longtime associate of Reno, how can he claim to be an opponent?
The above-noted Bar rule requires Lazaro to sign a written waiver of the conflict, indicating on its face that he is aware that his new law firm Kirkland & Ellis supports this administration and the first lady.
I have asked Kendall Coffey and Kirkland & Ellis to fax me a waiver signed by Lazaro Gonzalez waiving both the conflict of interest that Coffey (documented here for three months) and Kirkland & Ellis have.
Positive proof that conflicts of interest have consequences is to be found in the appellate brief filed Thursday, the one prepared by Kirkland & Ellis.
It makes absolutely no mention of the startling documents secured by Judicial Watch and Larry Klayman from the Justice Department showing that this administration was not pursuing legitimate immigration policies in the Elian case, as it told the 11th Circuit, but rather that it was clandestinely
collaborating with Castro to return the boy to Cuba quickly despite what immigration law mandates.
This is the strongest argument Elian has in the 11th Circuit, and it is his most substantial shot at an asylum hearing, at due process, and at freedom. It is not even mentioned in Kirkland & Ellis' brief.
Why not? One reason may be that the lead attorney handling the case at Kirkland & Ellis is Brett Kavanaugh, a former associate of Kenneth Starr at the Office of Independent Counsel. Kavanaugh was a key player in clearing the Clintons of a host of scandals.
A critic of the Starr investigation has been Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch. I am sure Kavanaugh had no interest in giving Klayman any credibility, and that's why the critical documents were never mentioned in the brief Kavanaugh wrote.
Still, these documents are of critical importance.
Team Coffey could have asked the 11th Circuit to "remand" or send back down to the Miami federal district court the issue of whether the documents obtained by Judicial Watch change the asylum issue. Team Coffey could have argued that the administration has been less than honest, and
that the family has the right to engage in discovery to see what else is being hidden by the government.
Such proceedings in Miami would surely prolong the entire litigation, and delay favors the boy for reasons already reported at NewsMax.com.
Team Coffey's strategy has been duplicitous – wanting to appear to help the boy in the Miami community, while at the same time not helping him in the one place it can – before the 11th Circuit.
For example, Team Coffey's lawyers have been distributing the Justice Department smoking gun documents obtained by Judicial Watch to all the Spanish language radio and TV stations in Miami – apparently to make it look as if they are going to use them on behalf of Elian.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Judicial Watch is going to have to try to raise these crucial issues in its amicus curiae brief to the court, but the watchdog group may not even be granted amicus status, which means the arguments would never be heard.
With the addition of Kirkland & Ellis and Brett Kavanaugh to Team Coffey, all Elian gets is yet another set of lawyers taking a dive.
Author's Note: I believe Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch offers the best hope in saving Elian and bringing the truth out. Judicial Watch has set up a legal defense fund. I encourage you to contribute.
Castro's Media Going Bananas Over NewsMax.com
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff / For the story behind the story... Saturday June 17, 2000 3:30 PM EST
We already knew that NewsMax.com's coverage and the insightful analysis of Miami attorney Jack Thompson was driving the Democratic establishment in Miami and Washington nuts.
We already have information that the appeal filed this week was only introduced because NewsMax.com had pointed out that the lawyers supposedly "representing" Elian wanted to wash their hands of him quickly.
Apparently word has filtered back to Castro about NewsMax.com's role.
The Cuban official "news" agency, Granma, has been covering the Elian case.
Yesterday Granma reported the following: "Reinaldo Taladrid stated how the extreme right wing in the U.S. has taken over the managing of this judicial farce. Following instructions of a right wing publication, new lawyers have been added to the group of kidnappers."
The Granma story goes on to mention Kikland & Ellis and makes special mention of Brett M. Kavanaugh, who worked with Kenneth Starr. (Granma offered no criticism of Kirkland & Ellis, so that may be another sign that the fix is in.)
Kavanaugh - Elian's Appellate Attorney Played Key Role in Starr Foster Probe
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff / For the story behind the story... Sunday June 18, 2000 4:33 PM EST
Last week Elian's Miami legal team filed an appeal with the 11th Curcuit Court in Atlanta.
NewsMax.com noted that the Washington firm brought into the case by the Miami legal team is Kirkland & Ellis.
Jack Thompson, writing on NewsMax.com, has noted that Kirkland & Ellis, a Chicago-based firm, has long-standing ties to the Democratic Party.
In fact, in previous election cycles the firm's PAC has donated disproportionately to Democratic candidates. This year the firm has donated to Hillary Clinton's Senate camapign.
NewsMax.com has also noted that Kirkland & Ellis served as Ken Starr's private firm while he was independent counsel.
It is important to note that the appellate brief filed on behalf of Elian last week was prepared and signed off by Kirkland & Ellis partner Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, a Yale graduate and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, had been brought into Kirkland & Ellis by Starr. Kavanaugh had served Starr as associate independent counsel before joining the firm.
In his book "The Strange Death of Vincent Foster" (Simon & Schuster, 1997), Christopher Ruddy alleges that Starr and his legal team engaged in a cover-up of the death investigation of former deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, whose dead body was found in Fort Marcy Park on
July 20, 1993.
Ruddy notes that the Starr investigation came close to imploding when Starr's lead prosecutor in the Foster death probe, Miquel Rodriguez, and his assistant, resigned after they had been thwarted from properly investigating the case they believed had all the earmarks of a murder.
After Rodriguez's departure, Kavanaugh played a key role in minimizing the collateral damage and by helping to put together a report for Starr that sanitized Rodriguez's findings and cleared the Clinton White House, the Park Police and the FBI in any wrongdoing in the Foster death
investigations.
When Patrick Knowlton, a key witness in the case, surfaced and claimed the FBI had lied in his witness statement relating to a man he saw near a car officials said was Foster's, Starr's probe quickly summoned Knowlton before the grand jury.
Knowlton was questioned by Brett Kavanaugh. Knowlton reported afterward that he was stunned by Kavanaugh's questions, one of which was a graphic question about sex. Knowlton believes Kavanaugh had little interest in the truth but made an attempt to smear him by suggesting he was homosexual,
which Knowlton is not.
Kavanaugh has denied asking such a question, but Knowlton insists otherwise.
Clearly the Foster case cried out for further investigation, something that Kavanaugh and his friends on Starr's team had little interest in doing. Kavanaugh also served on Starr's team as they dropped the ball on FBI Filegate, the Travelgate matter, and the White House efforts to obstruct
justice.
Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman expressed surprise at how poorly written the appellate brief was seeking Elian's freedom. It shouldn't have come as any suprise. It was written by Brett Kavanaugh, the same man who washed his hands of Vincent Foster.
Elian's Father's Day Letter Proves Castro Is Daddy
NewsMax.com. Monday, June 19, 2000
Demonstrating once again that Elian Gonzalez's real father is Fidel Castro, not Juan Miguel, Cuban state television this weekend revealed the contents of a letter sent to the dictator for Father's Day.
According to the Cuban news service, Elian, along with other family members, signed a letter to Castro that read: "On this Father's Day we want to send you an affectionate greeting and a deserved kiss from all of us. ... Especially to the father who we love very much for his unequaled
teaching and infinite love ... our commander-in-chief," Fidel Castro.
The letter continued: "We would like very much to be with you today, sharing the happiness that characterizes our family. But, as you know the enemies of the fatherland are delaying Elian's return."
Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for Castro here in the United States, has previously stated that Elian is the property of the state, not of his parents. Castro has stated in previous speeches that he is the father of all Cubans. Parental rights don't exist in Cuba.
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