1. Identification of Roundup participants
The first step in the investigation was identifying participants in the Roundup. We did this by several means. First, after learning on July 13 that Rightmyer had records of who had attended various Roundups, Treasury OIG served an administrative subpoena on Rightmyer for these records on July 15. [ / On July 14, DOJ OIG indicated to Treasury OIG our interest in serving an administrative subpoena on Rightmyer that day, but Treasury OIG requested that we not do so because he was a former Treasury employee. We acceded to that request. ] Rightmyer initially claimed he could not comply with the subpoena because he had erased his computer records containing this information the previous evening. On July 17, Treasury OIG served a second subpoena on Rightmyer, this time for his computer's hard drive, so that efforts could be made to retrieve the erased records. [ / On July 18, the DOJ OIG served an administrative subpoena on Rightmyer for these same records in case Rightmyer objected to the Treasury OIG providing us with access to his records, which by that time were in its sole possession. The Department of Treasury subsequently made available to the DOJ OIG all of the computer records it had received from Rightmyer. ] A computer technician was able to recover these records from the hard drive.
From Rightmyer's hard drive the Treasury and DOJ OIGs obtained an address list containing 849 names of past attendees and invitees. This same file also contained Roundup registration data from 1990 through 1994. Other recovered files identified the past winners of the Redneck of the Year contest; the members of the 1994 and 1995 Roundup Executive Committees; the 1994 and 1995 Members of the Board; the 1995 volunteers for various assignments such as security, registration, and cooking; and the Roundup's 1994 and 1995 expenses, including the names of various vendors used for Roundup supply purchases. Pursuant to these administrative subpoenas, Rightmyer also produced a copy of the handwritten registration sheets for the 1995 Roundup listing the names of all of the attendees who signed in and a computer diskette containing names and addresses of 277 persons who attended the 1995 Roundup and information regarding their registration for the Roundup from 1990 through 1994. [ / Rightmyer had obtained this diskette from another person who previously had assumed responsibility for maintaining the Roundup's mailing list. Many of these individuals also were listed on the original address list obtained from Rightmyer's computer. DOJ OIG subsequently served a subpoena on this individual, who is not in law enforcement, for any additional records he had regarding Roundup attendance. He stated that he had sent two computer disks to Rightmyer containing the mailing list information and did not retain copies for himself. He searched his computer, however, and found some small files he retained regarding Roundup golf outings. He made copies of those files for us. ]
In addition to obtaining attendance information from Rightmyer, the OIG directed the FBI, the DEA, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), the Criminal Division of DOJ, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the United States Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to survey their employees to determine which, if any, had attended or been invited to a Roundup, or could identify Justice Department personnel who had attended a Roundup. [ / This inquiry was later expanded and included an additional six components of the Department of Justice. The details of the process used by each component to survey its employees are contained in the appendix to this report, Section A, at 1. ] Between the results of these surveys and the information obtained from Rightmyer's files, OIG identified approximately 1000 persons who had either attended or been invited to attend one or more of the Roundups. This list included registration data for almost a third of the Roundups, including many of the years with the largest attendance. Subsequently, Rightmyer consented to give OIG access to his bank records. The copies of checks deposited in his account gave OIG additional information about who registered to attend the Roundup. The banks maintained these records as far back as 1988. With the addition of these records, we identified a total of 1,369 persons who attended various Roundups. Although this list was not a complete set of everyone who ever went to a Roundup, we believe it represents a substantial majority of attendees.