(Washington, DC)  Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed an appeal letter with Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England over a September 17, 2004 letter from the Naval Inspector General (“IG”), Vice Admiral Ronald A. Route, concerning the awards and conduct of Lieutenant (junior grade) John Forbes Kerry, USNR.  The appeal letter was also addressed to Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Vern Clark, and to the Pentagon’s Inspector General, Joseph E. Schmitz.

Judicial Watch has learned that a Kerry campaign staffer was aware of the contents of the Navy IG’s letter on the afternoon of Friday, September 17, 2004 – hours before Judicial Watch received its copy of the letter.

IG Route’s September 17^th letter focused strictly on the Navy’s procedures and processing of awards.  He claimed senior officers were operating under properly delegated authority for awarding medals and that procedures were correctly followed for approving Kerry’s awards.  No specific documentary examples were cited or offered as exhibits to the letter.  Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) open records request with the Navy IG on Monday, September 20, 2004 seeking all agency records related to the IG’s decisions.

IG Route dismissed an investigation into the eyewitness accounts (some sworn) of officers, sailors and one medical doctor by writing: “Conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over thirty years ago would not be productive.”  He also failed to address former Navy Secretary John Lehman’s (now well publicized) categorical denial of approving Kerry’s citations.  IG Route concluded by stating that he would “. . . take no further action in this matter.”

“Did the Navy give a heads up to the Kerry campaign?  John Kerry has yet to release his service record and the Navy has yet to investigate it.  We hope Kerry and the Navy are not in cahoots.  The public expects better,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

To view the documents, click here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) or here for the html version.