Travel-Office Workers’ Suit Dismissed
A federal judge Thursday threw out a civil lawsuit filed by seven longtime employees of the White House travel office against Hollywood producer Harry Thomason and a business associate in which they blamed the two men for orchestrating their firings in the early days of the Clinton administration.
U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene dismissed the case with prejudice, preventing the former travel-office employees from refiling the suit. Greene said the employees failed to prove legally they had secure enough jobs for someone to try to take them away.
The plaintiffs were led by the travel office’s former director, Billy R. Dale, who was acquitted in 1995 of embezzling funds from the office.
Although most of the travel-office employees worked in the White House through several administrations, they served at the will of the president. When Clinton was elected, he had the right to fire them.
“Indeed, in one sense the relationship here between the plaintiffs and their employer may be even more tenuous than the usual at-will relationship, for the White House personnel serve only at the pleasure of the president,” Greene wrote.
Thomason’s attorney, Robert S. Bennett, said he was “delighted” with the ruling. “It was a baseless case,” he said. “The only reason Harry was sued was because he’s a friend of Bill Clinton’s.”
Attorney Steven C. Tabackman, who represents the workers, said, “We think the judge misread the controlling law in the District of Columbia, and we are deciding what steps will be taken” regarding an appeal.
When Dale and the other employees were fired on May 19, 1993, they were cast as criminals by the White House, which announced that the FBI was investigating the operations of the travel office.
In their lawsuit, the travel-office workers accused Thomason and his partner, Darnell Martens, of “tortious interference” in their employment.
Thomason denied wrongdoing. The travel-office employees contended that Thomason and Martens wanted the business of booking air charters for the news media and wanted their Little Rock friends to get jobs in the office.
Because of a firestorm of criticism that followed, the administration backtracked, finding jobs for five of the seven workers.