WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has been asked to investigate the unauthorized transfer of $236,000 to the checking account of the Confederate Memorial Association, a cultural organization that had been operating a century-old Civil War museum in the nation's capital.
John Edward Hurley, president of the Association and a signatory on the account, said that he had repeatedly tried to get an explanation for the appearance of the funds in the checking account at SunTrust Bank in Alexandria, Virginia. Hurley said he was concerned because he had been interviewed by an FBI counterintelligence agent who was investigating a former treasurer of the CMA for offering a $10,000 bribe to a judge in a Florence, South Carolina cocaine case.
The Confederate Memorial Association has been embroiled in over 13 years of ongoing litigation in the D.C. Superior Court where, according to Hurley, Judge John H. Bayly, Jr. had quashed a subpoena for a Maryland credit union account. This account has been used as a conduit to finance operations of the former CMA treasurer and the litigants opposing the CMA.
D.C. Superior Court Judge William Jackson has refused to allow any testimony regarding a conspiracy to be admitted in his courtroom on this case. Hurley said that this was also troubling since one of the litigants against his organization had admitted to spending over $400,000 in legal fees against his organization. This same individual, an employee of the U.S. Coast Guard with a security clearance, has been dealing with a registered foreign agent, Hurley said.
Hurley said that one of the witnesses that was not heard in Judge Jackson's courtroom was going to testify as a first-person witness of joint activities between the Coast Guard employee, the Christian Defense League and other white supremacist organizations. Judge Jackson's wife is Susan Sinclair, who works for the Terrorist and Violent Crime Section of the Department of Justice.
Timothy J. Reardon III is also with the Terrorism and Violent Crimes Section of the DOJ and serves as Co-Chairman with Herbert Harmon, chief counsel against the Confederate Memorial Association, on the Bar Association of the District of Columbia's Judicial and Public Appointments Committee.