Klayman Fights Corruption Within His "Own" Organization

Fitton Also Sued by a Donor and Former Miami Director

(Washington, D.C., April 13, 2006). Today, the founder of Judicial Watch, Larry Klayman, brought suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the current president, Tom Fitton. Lawsuits have also been filed by a donor of Judicial Watch, Louise Benson, and a former director of the Miami district office, Sandy Cobas, against Fitton and the current organization.

Founded in 1994, to fight for ethics in government, over the next ten years before he left to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida, Klayman built Judicial Watch into the leading public interest ethics watchdog nationally and internationally. Having been a Justice Department prosecutor, Klayman created the organization to be a "True Independent Counsel" for the people, since he had come to believe that government could not police itself. Klayman successfully took on Democrats and Republicans alike. The prestigious National Journal called him "a major force in Washington" and the "major public interest litigator at this time." See National Journal, June 24, 2002.

After Klayman left Judicial Watch in the fall of 2003, the current president Tom Fitton set out to hijack the group to further his own personal interests. As alleged in the complaint, Fitton sent out false and misleading fundraising letters, misused donor money, disparaged Klayman with supporters and the media, and took other actions which increased the damage to Judicial Watch, the donors and Klayman. Egregiously, Fitton allowed to remain as head of the high dollar Judicial Watch fundraising department an individual, Robert G. Mills, who he knew had a shady fundraising past and was in bed with Congressman Tom DeLay. This high dollar fundraiser, along with Fitton, defrauded donors. Fitton himself defrauded Klayman about his past, passing himself off as a college graduate of George Washington University when Klayman hired him years earlier, when in fact he had not graduated from the school and did not have even an undergraduate college degree.

Through Fitton's and Mill's actions, the suit also alleges that donors have been defrauded of monies which they donated on the condition that the funds be spent to purchase Judicial Watch's headquarters at 501 School Street, S.W. in Washington, D.C. In a separate suit filed in Miami circuit court, the former director of Judicial Watch's Southern Regional Office, Sandy Cobas alleges that Fitton and others took part in disparaging her Cuban/Hispanic heritage, defamed her, and took other actions to force her out of Judicial Watch because she was loyal to Klayman.

"In the two and one half years since I left, Fitton, who is not a lawyer, has taken over Judicial Watch for himself, never filling my position as Chairman with a distinguished lawyer to lead the organization. And Fitton disparaged and harmed my reputation in an attempt to make sure that I, and others who are loyal to me, could never return to lead Judicial Watch. Regrettably, I have been forced to take strong legal action to preserve this national treasure for all Americans. Not even the current leadership of my former organization is "above the law." It's time to set things straight for the future and return Judicial Watch to the millions of Americans who support it. In this renewed era of government scandal and secrecy, the country needs an honest, forceful and effective Judicial Watch," stated Klayman.

Klayman and Benson are represented by the Philadelphia firm of Spector, Gadon and Rosen, PC. To view the complaint, go to www.savingjudicialwatch.org.

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