KANSAS CITY – A nonparty to a defamation suit pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeks to quash or modify a subpoena she received as a researcher.
According to the notice filed July 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Kristine K. Alonge of Tonganoxie, Kansas claims the subpoena she received from plaintiffs Planet Aid Inc. and Lisbeth Thomsen imposes an undue burden for various reasons and one that commands she turn over all information she has related to her research.
The underlying lawsuit was filed last year against Reveal, Center for Investigative Reporting and reporters Matt Smith and Amy Walters over a series of articles it published related to Planet Aid's spending practices and taxpayer-funded U.S. Department of Agriculture grants it has received.
According to the notice, Planet Aid is a charity founded in 1997 by members of a Danish organization - an ideological collective based on Marxist and Maoist principles, "commonly known as Tvind whose members are called the Teachers Group," which is also known as TG. The group TG runs an international conglomerate of alternative schools, businesses, financial institutions and "nominal humanitarian" organizations, the petition states.
It states that five top TG leaders are currently wanted by Danish officials on charges of fraud and economic crimes and they are on Interpol's list of most-wanted.
Among other things, Alonge asserts that the location chosen for her to produce the requested documents in Kansas City, Missouri was a deliberate inconvenience that could easily have been avoided as it could have been arranged in Prairie Village, which is closer to her location.
She also states that information relevant to the litigation is available through other means.
"Plaintiff Planet Aid is the source of most of the relevant information," the petition states. "Their attorneys should not be demanding it from me. Additional information can be easily accessed from various government databases, such as state charity registries, or state corporation databanks. Still other information can be requested from various government agencies through FOIA requests."