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Judicial Watch v. Judicial Watch

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from: Timothy Noah

Posted Friday, April 28, 2006, at 11:53 AM ET

It had to happen. Judicial Watch, the polymorphously litigious and mostly right-wing public interest group—best known for representing at least six women who claim to have been groped, or know others who were groped, by former president Bill Clinton—is suing itself. Judicial Watch's founder, Larry Klayman, is suing the nonprofit alleging breach of "various agreements and laws," including his severance agreement. Klayman famously once sued his own mother; now he is now in effect suing his own child. Klayman left the place in 2003 to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida. He lost in the primary to Mel "Mr. Cellophane" Martinez, a former housing secretary whom I once identified as the most forgettable member of the Bush administration.

The person most frequently mentioned in Klayman's complaint is Thomas J. Fitton, his successor as president of Judicial Watch. In a prepared statement, Fitton said Klayman's complaint is "full of lies and distortions" and "a tactical maneuver designed to distract attention away from the fact that Klayman owes more than a quarter of a million dollars to Judicial Watch." Fitton declined to elaborate further when I spoke to him by phone, citing the inadvisability of commenting on a matter before the courts. He even declined to tell me his birth date, which would have allowed me to check whether and when Fitton received a bachelor's degree from George Washington University, questions that relate to one of Klayman's accusations (see document, below). If any readers happen to know Fitton's birth date, please email me at . To read my annotations to the following excerpts, roll your mouse over the portions highlighted in yellow. To read the entire complaint, click here.

If you have a document you'd like to suggest for this column, please e-mail me at documents@slate.com . Please indicate whether you'd like to be mentioned by name.

According to Judicial Watch's Web site, Fitton "attended The George Washington University, where he received his B.A. in English, with a minor in Applied Ethics." It doesn't say when he obtained this degree, and GW's registrar declined to provide any information.
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from: Timothy Noah

Posted Friday, April 28, 2006, at 11:53 AM ET
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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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