WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a watchdog group accused of violating federal law when it shared a whistleblower settlement with a government economist 14 years ago.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly made the call Monday after the eight-member civil jury couldn’t come to a unanimous verdict in Washington. The Justice Department argued the Project on Government Oversight and then-government economist Richard A. Berman had violated a ban on supplementing the salary of an executive branch employee.
At issue was POGO’s nearly $400,000 check to Berman in 1998 for helping expose oil industry underpayment of royalties to the federal government in a lawsuit filed in an East Texas federal court.
The case has dragged on for a decade. Two previous government victories were reversed on appeal.
