June 7, 2000

Contact: Richard Tomkins
                (202) 646-5172

DOCUMENTS SHOW CLINTON ADMINISTRATION ‘COLLABORATED' WITH CUBA ON ELIAN GONZALEZ

Documents Also Show INS' Doris Meissner Orchestrated Grandmothers Visit and Knew Court Would Not Revoke Miami Relatives' Custody of Elian

INS Documents Were Turned Over to Judicial Watch Under Court Order

(Washington, DC) Some Clinton-Gore Administration documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, Inc. in its lawsuits show that the Clinton-Gore Administration "collaborated" with Cuba on the Elian Gonzalez matter. Other documents show that Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner Doris Meissner planned the January, 2000 visit of the Elian's grandmothers in consultation with Cuba and that INS knew that they could not seize Elian without a court order. Meissner also sought to hide the INS' role in orchestrating the Cuban grandmothers' visit. Copies of these documents are available at Judicial Watch's Internet site at www.judicialwatch.org.

The documents were turned over to Judicial Watch recently by the Clinton-Gore Justice Department as part of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department and INS to obtain underlying information on the Elian Gonzalez saga. A federal court judge appointed by President Clinton, James Robertson, ordered that the Justice Department begin turning over the documents to Judicial Watch on April 26, 2000.

Thus far, the Clinton-Gore Administration has turned over approximately 3,000 documents, with thousands more expected. The Administration continues to withhold hundreds more, redacting pages in their entirety. Many of the documents, which have been reviewed by Judicial Watch, bear directly on the current court battles over Elian's asylum petitions and may have changed the early outcome of the case if they had been made public sooner.

"These ‘smoking gun' documents help prove what we've suspected – that the Clinton-Gore Administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when they raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch is a public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.