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“LETTER FROM MELVIN HONOWITZ” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E823 on May 17, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
LETTER FROM MELVIN HONOWITZ
______
HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, I entered into the Congressional Record letters from individuals or their representatives who took issue with assertions made in the report released last fall by the House Government Reform Committee majority regarding the Department of Justice. Since then, yet another individual has written to complain of inaccuracies and unfairness in the majority's report. In the interest of a complete record on this matter, I submit into the Record this March 30, 2001, letter from Melvin Honowitz.
Honowitz & Shaw, Attorneys at Law,
One Maritime Plaza, Suite 1725,
San Francisco, CA, March 30, 2001.Re: Palladino & Sutherland, and Jack Palladino.The Honorable Dan Burton,Committee on Government Reform, Washington, DC.The Honorable Henry A. Waxman,2204 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Messrs. Burton and Waxman: This office represents Palladino & Sutherland and Jack Palladino, nationally known private investigators [hereafter the ``client'']. We write without waiver of any applicable privilege to address the false allegations, accusations, assumptions, innuendos, speculations and references to our client contained in Chapter 10 of the Committee's report entitled ``Janet Reno's Stewardship of the Justice Department: A Failure To Serve The Ends of Justice.''
The report's allegations as to Jack Palladino are premised on the false assumption that Mr. Palladino, or someone under his direction or control, had a ``source in the Bureau of Prisons,'' and that his ``source'' obtained NCIC information on Nabuo Abe. The Committee's assumption is false and defamatory.
Moreover, the record on which the Committee relies is void of evidence in support of this assumption. Page 157, Section 1.a. of the reports is entitled ``Soka Gakkai Illegally Obtained Information on Nabuo Abe Through Jack Palladino.'' Except for this defamatory heading, the report utterly fails to present evidence to support the accusation. In fact, the only references to Jack Palladino in this Section states, without supporting documentation, ``Palladino then apparently contacted a source in the Bureau of Prisons who had access to the NCIC data base.'' [emphasis added] This is untrue and never happened.
The report then goes on to make the untrue and unsubstantiated statement that ``the source at the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) broke the law, as did possibly Langberg and Palladino.'' [emphasis added] In a manner more reminiscent of Kafka or perhaps Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, the report makes allegations of criminal acts which, prior to publication, the Committee never gave our clients an opportunity to refute. Accordingly, one must not only question the lack of due process afforded our client, but the underlying bias of the report's findings and the Committee's investigation.
Then, in Section 1.b, the report gratuitously speculates as to why attorney Rebekah Poston may have sought NCIC records:
``perhaps they were concerned with the reliability of Mr. Palladino's work . . .'' In fact, in advancing this speculation the Committee ignores its own Exhibit 62 to the report which identifies where Ms. Poston obtained here alleged NCIC information, and makes no reference to Jack Palladino or Palladino & Sutherland or anyone under their direction and control.
Even a cursory review of the Committee's Report and attached Exhibits demonstrates a complete lack of evidence. The only mention of Mr. Palladino in the Exhibits supporting the report is contained in unfounded and false speculation and innuendo that Mr. Palladino (for reasons never made clear) might have ``set up'' Poston and Manuel in some undefined manner (Exhibit 97). Similar raw speculation appears in Exhibits 98 and 104 and is false.
In his letter of October 31, 2000 to the Committee, attorney Barry B. Langberg clearly states the truth:
``Simply put, there is no evidence that Soka Gakkai, Jack Palladino or I committed any crime, or engaged in any improper activity whatsoever. As the report acknowledges the staff failed even to interview Mr. Palladino or me about our role in this matter. These charges are particularly objectionable because they are not even relevant to the report's central thesis, that Ms. Poston and others working at her direction received favorable treatment at the hand of the Justice Department. Thus, these serious attacks are made almost casually, without any claim or relevance to any public purpose.
In fact, even a preliminary investigation would have revealed that the so-called ``reliable source,'' Richard Lucas, never met with Mr. Palladino or discussed with him any of the facts or issues concerning this matter. Further, an investigation would also have shown that I had no personal involvement with the activity criticized in the report.''
Mr. Langberg goes on to rebut and refute the allegations, including the speculation that something was planted in or deleted from the NCIC records. A copy of the entire Langberg letter is attached and incorporated by reference as Exhibit A, as are the four Committee exhibits referenced in this letter (Exhibits 62, 97, 98 and 104) attached as Exhibits B.
Be clear, my client did not access nor seek or direct anyone to access the NCIC data base. Accordingly, we request that this letter and Mr. Langberg's letter be read into the Congressional Record and that the report be corrected.
Sincerely,
Melvin D. Honowitz,
Honowitz & Shaw.
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