Printed from JudicialWatch.org Oct 5, 2000 |
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Clinton Appointee Rules Against Administration on Document Request Related to Gore Scandal Portals Real Estate Project Benefitted Gore Fundraisers, Hurt Taxpayers (Washington, DC) The Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina, U.S. District Court Judge, ruled last week that the Clinton-Gore Administration must waive fees and turn over to Judicial Watch documents relating to a controversial government leasing arrangement that benefitted individuals close to Al Gore. In response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the Portals leasing controversy, the General Services Administration had sought to make Judicial Watch pay for thousands of documents before turning them over and sought to summarily dismiss a FOIA lawsuit Judicial Watch brought to obtain the documents. Judge Urbina ruled in favor of Judicial Watch. Publically available evidence suggests that Gore confidants benefitted, at the expense of taxpayers, from million dollar contingency fees in a lease deal between the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Portals Washington, DC office project, which is run by another Gore supporter. Without expressing any opinion on the underlying merits of the allegations, Judge Urbina ruled on September 25, 2000, that, among other things:
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