Sabla won her Open Government Act lawsuit against the governor, forcing the administration to release invoices and vouchers regarding its transactions with the law firm Jenner & Block.
But Sablan said records of payments made for Willens’ services in connection with the lawsuit were not included in the documents provided to her.
“Also conspicuously absent from the records released thus far: the attorney general is not named anywhere as a recipient of any of these records, though special legal counsel Howard Willens is; records of payments made for Howard Willens’ services connected to the governor’s lawsuit are not included, though they would certainly have been responsive to the [Open Government Act] request; and there is no written record of the attorney general expressly authorizing or even acknowledging the retention of legal services by Jenner & Block on behalf of the CNMI,” said Sablan in a statement.
Records show that the law firm was being paid with local taxpayer money since July.
The firm’s retainer is $50,000 a month but it can bill the CNMI government for extra legal services rendered in relation to the case and reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses.
Invoices sent to the CNMI from Aug. 2008 to Feb. 2009 totaled $464,985.56. Of the amount, the administration said $300,000 was already paid.
Because of the $50,000 monthly retainer, the CNMI should still pay Jenner & Block an additional $300,000 until August, which means that the total legal expenses during the period were close to $800,000.
Sablan noted the following “significant gaps in the records released thus far.”
“For example, the Jenner & Block invoice summaries released cover the time period beginning on Aug. 26, 2008 and ending on Feb. 27, 2009; the Department of Finance records only show payments made to Jenner & Block between Oct. 2008 and April 2009. The agreement between the Governor’s Office and Jenner & Block was first effectuated, however, on June 6, 2008 (according to the privilege log filed with the court by the Attorney General’s Office), and the federalization lawsuit continues to this day,” she said.
She said although the court had only authorized the redaction of private and sensitive bank account numbers in the records ordered for release, the Attorney General’s Office “apparently took the liberty of also redacting other public expenses that may have been connected to the governor’s federalization lawsuit that were shown on the fund status reports ordered for release, and names of contact persons and other information on the records showing wire transfers between the CNMI government and Jenner & Block.”
In addition, Sablan said “although the records released show at least six separate retainer payments made to Jenner & Block between Oct. 2008 and April 2009, the governor’s memo authorizing the first payment is missing, and at least three wire transfer authorizations made in Nov. 2008 and Jan. 2009 appear to also be missing,” she added.
