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Groom Lake lawyer won't give up files

Jonathan Turley, the attorney representing former workers at the Air Force's Groom Lake installation in Lincoln County in a lawsuit, said Tuesday he will not have to surrender his files to government lawyers who sought them to protect military secrets.

He referred to a decision by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro that followed a closed teleconference hearing in which Turley tried unsuccessfully to have the hearing unsealed along with a June 15 Justice Department letter and other documents in the case. Turley is director of the Environmental Crimes Project at George Washington University.

According to Pro's secretary, the judge will issue an order in connection with the hearing. The order will remain under seal.

The case centers on former workers at the Air Force's operating location, 35 miles west of Alamo, who claim they were exposed to toxic fumes from open-pit burning of hazardous waste while they built hangars and buildings at the installation.

The court's case file has been kept from public inspection since Friday while Pro reviewed requests by the Justice Department to require Turley to turn over documents relating to a government manual that Turley has said was retroactively classified.

Turley argued that if the government were to succeed, he would end up turning over sensitive information usually protected by attorney-client privilege.

"We are confident that with the court order today, the danger of seizure of my office files is no longer present. We are grateful for the court's intervention," Turley said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Turley said he expects more motions by the Justice Department will be sealed by the court and withheld from the public.

He said he could neither confirm or deny if the Justice Department had asked for materials other than the government manual, which has been widely circulated on computer networks.

Attempts to reach Justice Department officials after the closed hearing were unsuccessful.

Review-Journal writer Warren Bates contributed to this report.