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| Judge Blocks Ex-Prober From Giving Oil-for-Food Docs to Congress |
| Tuesday, May 10, 2005 |
A federal judge blocked a former investigator from giving Congress documents from the probe into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal Monday, granting the United Nations a victory in its effort to keep material from the investigation from making its way into U.S. lawmakers' hands.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington issued the temporary restraining order after the United Nations filed a petition to block congressional subpoenas for Robert Parton (search). The ex-FBI agent quit the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee in April, reportedly because he believed it ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The court order freezes the legal issues, giving the two sides a 10-day window to attempt to resolve the matter.
Last Wednesday, Parton handed over documents relating to the investigation after he was issued a subpoena the previous week by the House International Relations Committee. The day after Parton turned over the documents, a second panel � the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations � also issued a subpoena.
On Friday, committee chairman Paul Volcker (search) asked Congress to return records Parton handed over and appealed to lawmakers not to subpoena information or testimony. Volcker said the integrity of the probe into the $64 billion Oil-for-Food program was at stake and lives may be in jeopardy if details of the investigation are leaked.
"We went to court today to restrict Robert Parton from disseminating the documents he stole from the IIC," Michael Holtzman, a spokesman for the committee, told FOX News.
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posted by J.R. @ 10:04:00 AM   |
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