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Lyndon LaRouche and The New American Fascism
Ramsey Clark's Letter to Janet Reno on
the The LaRouche Case
April 26, 1995
The Honorable Janet Reno
Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice
10th and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Re: U.S. v. Lyndon LaRouche,
Jr. et al.
Dear Attorney General Reno,
I have been an attorney in this case since shortly after the defendants
were sentenced in January 1990 and appeared as co- counsel on appeal and
on the subsequent motions and appeals in proceedings under 28 U.S. C.
sec. 2255 and F.R. Cr.P. Rule 33. I bring this matter to you directly,
because I believe it involves a broader range of deliberate and systematic
misconduct and abuse of power over a longer period of time in an effort
to destroy a political movement and leader, than any other federal prosecution
in my time or to my knowledge. Three courts have now condemned the
Department's conduct in this prosecutorial campaign. The result has 
been a tragic miscarriage of justice which
at this time can only be corrected by an objective review and courageous
action by the Department of Justice.
As you may recall, in August 1993, co-counsel and I requested a review
of the issues presented by the case and the withdrawal or amendment of
the Department's 792 submissions to the parole commission. Both requests
were rejected at that time by Laurence A. Urgenson, Acting Deputy Assistant
Attorney General, who noted that the matter was then pending before the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and any executive review should not interfere
with judicial review.
The appeal has been denied and no further judicial action is pending or
contemplated. All of the actions for which we seek review took place under
prior administrations, and Mr. LaRouche and his co-defendants are either
on parole or have completed their sentences. But a complete review
remains vital, because of the gravity of the violations, the precedential
effect they have on future Department conduct if they are not addressed,
the price of the appearance of this injustice and the fact that other
defendants prosecuted by the State of Virginia as part of joint federal-state
task force efforts are imprisoned and serving draconian sentences from
which they have little hope of release unless the overreaching multi-government
miscarriage of justice is recognized.
Because of its resonance with the decade long vendetta against him, I
am also concerned by recent events which may threaten action by the Parole
Commission that could jeopardize Mr. LaRouche's parole.
The investigation which ultimately led to the indictments against LaRouche,
et al. was made public in late October 1984, when U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts
William Weld held a press conference to announce its commencement based
on allegations aired by the NBC TV station in Boston. In fact federal
harassment and investigation had preceded this public surfacing for years.
On October 6, 1986 indictments were returned Boston against key members
of Mr. LaRouche's political party. Simultaneously a massive two day search
involving over 400 law enforcement officers was conducted at the Virginia
offices of several businesses associated with the political movement and
2 million documents were seized. The investigation continued and Mr. LaRouche
himself was finally indicted in a second superseding indictment returned
in Boston during July of 1987 and on My 4, 1988 a mistrial was declared.
During the period William Weld was Assistant Attorney General in charge
of the Criminal Division where he supervised the Department's pursuit
of Lyndon LaRouche.
After the Boston mistrial, in a ruling on a motion regarding prosecutorial
misconduct, the trial Judge, Robert Keeton, made the first judicial finding
of outrageous government wrongdoing. Although he denied the relief sought,
he found "systemic and institutional prosecutorial misconduct." In a seperate
post trial matter, Judge Keeton found that the F.B.I. case agent Richard
Egan had improperly destroyed documents "in plain violation" of representations
to the parties and the court.
Despite the fact that a retrial in Boston was scheduled for January 3,
1989, the Department of Justice decided to seek a more favorable forum
and legal theory and rushed through an indictment in the Eastern District
of Virginia on October 14, 1988. Five weeks later trial commenced in the
Alexandria "rocket docket" on November 21, 1988. Four weeks later all
defendants including Mr. LaRouche were convicted. The appeal was denied
by the Fourth Circuit. Collateral relief was denied by the trial court
and on appeal by the Fourth Circuit.
During the Boston federal grand jury investigation, the government sought
contempt sanctions against certain companies associated with the political
movement. The resulting sanctions, exceeding 20 million dollars, were
the basis on which the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District
of Virginia filed an unprecedented and unlawful petition in bankruptcy
against the companies sanctioned in 1987. The Department did not intend
to recover money. It wanted to silence voices and destroy a movement.
The government, ex parte, sought and received an order effectively closing
the doors of these publishing businesses, all of which were involved in
First Amendment activities, effectively preventing the further repayment
of their debts. A handful of these very debts were the basis of all the
new federal charges in Virginia. The bankruptcy court made it impossible
to repay the handful of creditors who might complain to the government.
When the bankruptcy court finally ruled on the petition in 1989, after
the convictions in Alexandria, it dismissed the case. The court found
the government to have engaged in "objective bad faith" and a "constructive
fraud upon the court" in filing the involuntary proceeding. The publisher's
doors never reopened.
The government thereby created a pool of lenders who could not be repaid
by the debtors as a matter of law, and from this pool a handful were then
presented as victims at trial and were asked whether they had been paid.
This stratagem was necessitated by the prosecution's recognition that
evidence of ongoing repayments would jeopardize their case. Payments ere
made up to the bankruptcy date, but were impossible thereafter, clearly
intended to advance the criminal prosecution, as was later demonstrated
by documents released under FOIA and statements made by AUSA John Markham.
On February 18, 1995, the third and most pointed judicial finding of prosecutorial
misconduct was made by a New York Supreme Court Judge in a ruling on Brady
and Rosario violations which occurred during a related prosecution. After
"a hearing to inquire into the relationship and extent of cooperation
between the federal prosecutor in Virginia and the New York prosecutors...,"
the court ordered a new trial, holding that:
All of the foregoing circumstances suggest a studied and calculated effort
to use against the defendants enormous amounts of information that the
Virginia [federal] prosecutor made available to the New York Attorney
General without the onus of revealing any of the exculpatory or other
pertinent information that a New Your prosecutor has an obligation to
locate and produce for defendants. (footnote omitted). These circumstances
raise an inference of a conspiracy to lay low these defendants at any
cost both here and in Virginia."
People v. Robert Primack, et al., indictment No. 8654/87, Supreme Court
of New York, New York County, Part 81/83, opinion of Crane, J., 2.16/95.
Significantly, New Your Judge Crane also evaluated the testimonial veracity
of FBI Special Agent Klund, a case agent on the LaRouche investigation:
...[T]he court rejects Agent Klund's explanation that his chart was truncated
in photocopying. The court finds it painfully obvious that...his testimonial
speculation was intended to protect the secrecy of these Reports [of FBI
302 witness statements].
In conjunction with the defendants' 2255 motion in the Eastern District
of Virginia, six volumes of newly discovered evidence were attached as
appendices. These materials consist of 85 pieces of evidence, discovered
post-trial, which bear primarily on governmental misconduct. This material,
which has never been seriously reviewed, reveals a range of misconduct,
including:
misrepresentation of material
facts and Brady violations by the prosecutors;
withholding of relevant materials
from the prosecutors by the FBI to avoid its discovery;
unlawful searches and seizures
by government agents;
subornation and condonation
of perjury;
witness tampering;
failure to disclose promises,
rewards or inducements to witnesses;
improper utilization of a civil
mater to advance a criminal prosecution;
denial of the existence of,
and failure to produce an existing FBI file on Lyndon LaRouche compiled
under Executive Order 12333, and;
creating adverse media coverage through leaks and unattributed comments;
In short, it demonstrates a
pervasive conspiracy and concerted action designed to do precisely what
Judge Crane found, "lay low these defendants at any cost," and then to
cover their tracks. The fact of political motivation in this conspiracy
is demonstrated by the evidence, particularly by that which reveals the
collaboration between the government and avowed political antagonists
of LaRouche and his movement.
These materials, with previously available evidence of misconduct, more
recent discoveries, the judicial findings of misconduct and the overwhelming
appearance of injustice make the full review requested a matter of great
importance not just to the defendants but to the Department of Justice
and the public.
While you will know best what office in the Department can conduct the
review most effectively, I believe it should be an office with Department-wide
authority and that the Criminal Division is inappropriate because of its
intimate involvement in the prosecution over the years.
I bring this matter to you directly not merely as an advocate for clients
who I believe are the victims of a gross miscarriage of justice caused
by governmental misconduct, but in the belief that righting such wrongs
is essential to justice and faith in our institutions. I would like to
discuss this matter with you. I will bring documents which support the
statements in this letter at that time for you, or the official you designate.
I will call your office for an appointment.
Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark
The LaRouche organization
removed above letter from their site mid October '03. Likely reason:
To keep such incriminating documents from blowing the cover off of Clark's
close links to LaRouche.