First subpoena to be issued in Yucca e-mail investigation

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Geological Survey scientist Joe Hevesi is to be subpoenaed today to appear at a June 29 congressional subcommittee hearing to discuss his involvement with possibly falsified scientific research used to support the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump.

This marks the first subpoena issued in the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee's investigation into e-mails written or seen by at least 10 different people that imply -- or sometimes plainly say -- how they worked around the project's quality assurance program, which is designed to show the site's science is sound.

The subpoena was necessary because "Mr. Hevesi has, to date, refused to cooperate with the subcommittee in its congressional investigation," according to the subcommittee announcement.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., chairman of the House subcommittee, said he has asked Hevesi to appear before the committee 23 times, including 17 requests to Hevesi's lawyer. He will ask the Energy Department one more time to comply with a document request, this time by June 29, he added.

The congressman said he will take whatever steps are necessary for the department to comply.

"Today's action shows I am serious," Porter said.

Porter said he wants to make sure "the science the White House used to make its decision was not science fiction."

Lawyer Joe Egan, who represents Nevada on Yucca issues, said a subpoena is a "powerful device" to order someone to appear before Congress. Anyone who violates such a subpoena can be fined or even jailed. An individual still can refuse to talk under the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Egan said.

Hevesi, reached at his office late Monday, referred questions to USGS spokeswoman A.B. Wade. He said only that he had unofficially heard about the subpoena, but would answer no other questions.

Wade said Hevesi has retained his own lawyer and the government will not be representing him.

The latest Yucca controversy erupted in March when the Energy Department announced it had discovered e-mails written between May 1998 and March 2000 while reviewing documents in the project's database. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced that the messages indicate scientists falsified their data on the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Porter had first identified Hevesi as one of the scientists involved in the e-mail scandal in an April 10 letter asking him and fellow USGS employees Alan L. Flint and Lorraine E. Flint to meet with subcommittee staff and appear before the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee. The hearing was eventually canceled at the last minute when the three employees refused to attend.

Wade said the subcommittee has now met with the Flints.

It was also discovered that Hevesi completed 40 hours of work worth $4,900 on the Yucca Mountain project while he was under investigation for possibly falsifying documents. The Energy Department rehired him briefly in March to help find computer files he helped create.

Wade said USGS handed over 3,000 pages of documents to the subcommittee on May 23, including a stack specifically on Hevesi that was about four inches high. The agency had given the documents on a CD earlier in May, but the subcommittee wanted printed copies.

The Interior and Energy Department inspectors general have ongoing investigations into the falsifications along with the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas. The Energy Department is conducting an additional investigation to see if the science was actually compromised.

Wade said the investigations are still ongoing and she was not sure when they would be done.

Porter, who was named chairman of the subcommittee in February, held a hearing in April with Energy and Interior Department officials, Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval and other witnesses. The subcommittee staff has its own ongoing investigation and is releasing information to the public as it can.

It released 93 pages of redacted e-mails and additional department documents in April. In one message, the author said he keeps two sets of files "the ones that will keep QA (quality assurance) happy and the ones that were actually used" while others talk about making stuff up and urge readers to delete the messages. The names had been redacted from the pages so it is not clear which messages Hevesi wrote.

Porter previously had referred to issuing a subpoena as a "last resort" early in his subcommittee's investigation, saying once one was on the table, it would change the nature of the whole investigation. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., will issue the subpoena.