A LAWYER has requested the Attorney General’s Office to provide him information regarding the costs, attorneys’ fees and services billed to date to the CNMI government by former Assistant Attorney General Robert Goldberg.
Bruce L. Jorgensen, who represents asylum seekers, asked Assistant Attorney General Andrew Clayton to give him the records pursuant to the CNMI’s Open Government Act.
Jorgensen, in a letter to Clayton, said the requested public records were needed in preparation for his clients’ prospective settlement considerations.
Jorgensen said Attorney General Robert Torres refused to discuss prospective settlement with him “insisting that any such considerations be submitted in writing.”
“In order to draft any meaningful suggestions, a valuation assessment must be conducted, respecting the matter of attorneys’ fees. This valuation must take into account the value of fees paid to other private attorneys by the CNMI government,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Variety.
Jorgensen wanted to know how much the government paid attorneys Rexford Kosack, Sean Frink, Glenn Jewel and others in representing Goldberg in the lawsuit.
Jorgensen also inquired how much the government was billed between Jan. 1998 to Jan. 2002 by private attorneys and law firms relating to legal services rendered to then Labor and Immigration Secretary Mark Zachares and his then assistant, Goldberg.
Jorgensen sought records regarding costs and attorneys’ fees paid by the government to Goldberg in his capacity as a private attorney, and to the law firm of Calvo & Clark between Jan. 1998 to Jan. 15, 2002 relating to legal services provided to the CNMI to defend Zachares and Goldberg.
The asylum seekers alleged that Goldberg and Zachares permitted a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services officer to interview one of the asylum applicants without the presence of counsel.
The 22 asylum seekers also filed a consolidated complaint against Goldberg and Zachares for allegedly wrongfully imprisoning them. The case is pending in federal court.
