WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In 1988, a lawsuit was initiated against the Confederate Memorial Association claiming that the 1984 bylaws of the CMA improperly excluded certain individuals from the CMA board. Those seeking board representation were both political appointees and government employees from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, who were under the direction of political appointees. Although the statute of limitations had run out on such a claim, the case was pursued because the CMA's law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe failed to challenge the claim because the political process involved Mena, Arkansas, and the Freedom Fighters.
One of the individuals who was active in the litigation against the CMA was James Freeman. It turns out that Freeman was a United States Marshal. Freeman has also been placing a memorial wreath at the restored statue to the Confederacy in Arlington National Cemetery on Jefferson Davis' birthday. The wreath he places is from the Cherokee Nation. A response to a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the money for the restoration of the Confederate monument came from an untraceable counter check, rather than from a "Monument Fund" that was claimed in sworn testimony.
It was the CMA's contention that federal funds and personnel had been used in the pursuit of the litigation against the Confederate Memorial Association, a private organization that never takes a penny of public money. The probable sources of these funds is now becoming evident, according to CMA President John Edward Hurley.
Testimony in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia indicates that there is a U.S. Marshals Foundation, and that millions of dollars are missing from this tax exempt organization. Testimony before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs showed that the marshals own and operate a casino known as The Bicycle Club in California, which they acquired under the asset forfeiture program. The Cherokee Nation also runs two casinos in North Carolina.
Hurley does not believe that this is all a coincidence, and has called for a congressional investigation.
According to incorporation papers filed in Richmond, Virginia, the U.S. Marshals Foundation included on its board Senator Strom Thurmond and Simon Fireman, who awaits sentencing for illegal campaign contributions. Thurmond's chief of staff, R.J. (Duke) Short, lists himself as a member of the Foundation's National Advisory Council in the 1995 Congressional Staff Directory.