Confederate Memorial Association

                                                                     Press Release

____________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                                       For further information, contact:

December 17, 2004                                             William Wood - (202) 483-5700                  

 

          CONFEDERATE LAWSUIT APPEARS TO

 

                   IMPLICATE PAT BUCHANAN

 

Washington, D.C. ---  A 16-year ongoing lawsuit that closed the century-old Confederate museum in Washington, D.C.,  now appears to be involving columnist and commentator Pat Buchanan.

 

According to John Edward Hurley, president of the Confederate Memorial Association that owned and operated the museum, he recently asked Buchanan if he was a member of the of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Jefferson Davis Camp No. 305, a litigant against the association.  Buchanan replied that he was a member of the Sons of Confederate but that he didn’t remember which group.  Hurley said that Buchanan, after thinking for a moment, did admit to having heard of the Confederate museum.

 

Hurley says that Buchanan’s reactions to his questions are unusual, considering that most native Washingtonians would readily admit being familiar with the museum.  Moreover, Hurley said that Buchanan’s campaign manger for his presidential campaign was Larry Pratt, president of the Gun Owners of America, who had contributed several thousand dollars to a legal fund used to sue the museum.

 

Sworn testimony in the case indicated that one legal fund used against the Confederate Memorial Association reached over $400,000.  Hurley claims that another source of legal funding against his association was supplied by tobacco giant Philip Morris that had donated at least $500,000 to the American Defense Institute.  Philip Morris has been represented by Richard Hines, a long-time Buchanan friend and political supporter.  Hines also helped establish the controversial Southern Partisan magazine, which is published by Charles Hamel, who has contributed at least another $30,000 for the litigation against the museum.

 

During the Watergate investigation, Buchanan’s brother Henry, who was the treasurer of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), sued Walter Cronkite and CBS Evening News for reporting that the financial sources for the Watergate pay-offs had been concealed by the treasurer.

 

 Ironically, Hurley said, Pat Buchanan had not only hired his association’s treasurer but was a friend of Judge John H. Bayly, one of the judges in the case, making it even more unlikely that he would be unfamiliar with the litigation. 

 

Hurley said that lawyers against his association had failed to claim a $15,000 sanction ordered by the court since he began publicizing what appears to be a conspiracy and obstruction of justice. 

 

Pat Buchanan, one of the originators of the Culture Wars, has yet to comment on this one.