Washington, U.S.A. – On July 31, 2012 Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, objected to the current head of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton’s releasing a book published by Simon and Schuster titled “Corruption Chronicles,” which he said not only misleads readers about the history of the organization, but attempts to trade-off of and profit from Klayman’s accomplishments and his own prior book.

Having previously demanded “Corruption” be reissued in a new truthful version and with a non-infringing cover, Klayman issued a second demand that Fitton depart from his “path of deception.”

Klayman founded Judicial Watch in 1994 after 17 years as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and in private practice, to investigate and prosecute government corruption and abuse.

Before he left to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida in late 2003, Klayman’s successes and reputation at Judicial Watch grew to such a level that the NBC hit series “West Wing” created a character after him, Harry Klaypool of Freedom Watch, played by actor John Diehl. Klayman liked the name Freedom Watch so much he later founded a new legal watchdog by this name.

In 2009, Klayman wrote an autobiography about his reasons for conceiving of and founding Judicial Watch and his mission to bring ethics and honesty to government and the legal profession, titled “Whores: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment,” the book was widely acclaimed for its non-partisanship and importance.

It was adorned with a vivid red, black and white cover. See CSPAN Washington Journal interview at www.freedomwatchusa.org.

On the book jacket are what various media icons and activists have said about Klayman’s accomplishments and work at Judicial Watch and thereafter.

According to Klayman, “Fitton claims credit for all my accomplishments as chairman and general counsel during the many years Fitton was my underling, and now he fails to even mention my name even once in his book.

Fitton even claims credit for Klayman’s founding of Judicial Watch and Klayman’s work prior to Fitton having been hired.  Incredibly, said Klayman, Fitton is not a lawyer and has never once argued a Judicial Watch case in court.

“Nor had he graduated from college when I hired him, despite his having represented to me that he had graduated from George Washington University.

And, to make matters worse, not only was ‘Corruption Chronicles’ principally and secretly written, without attribution, by ghost writer Ben Shapiro, the cover of the book seeks to pass itself off as and profit from my own book by using the same color scheme and format,  thus confusingly similar and infringing,” he added. “In short, Fitton seeks to pass himself off as his former boss.”

“The readers of ‘Corruption Chronicles’ deserve not to be deceived. They deserve an honest account of Judicial Watch’s accomplishments, consistent with the ethics and ideals of the baby I conceived and birthed.

Fitton must act consistently with the watchdog’s mission, which is to fight corruption, not spread it, since he is not above the law himself.”

Klayman is the chairman and general counsel of Freedom Watch, which he also founded.

Image Courtesy of   s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

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