A court-appointed arbitrator recently blocked Dimitrios Biller – a former Toyota defense lawyer – from releasing 6,000 documents allegedly proving a Toyota safety cover-up, but those documents will likely come into the public light next week at a House committee hearing.
The House Oversight Committee has officially issued a subpoena for Biller’s 6,000 documents that allegedly prove a safety “conspiracy” within Toyota. Although the California court system recently barred Biller from releasing the information, the House subpoena supersedes previous court rulings.
“The injunction doesn’t prevent Mr. Biller from complying with his legal obligations,” Biller’s attorney, Jeffrey Allen, said. The documents are to be delivered by February 23, one day before a House hearing on Toyota ’s safety concerns is set to begin.
Toyota has not revealed if it will fight the subpoena in court.
Although Biller’s documents don’t involve Toyota’s latest unintended acceleration problems, they reportedly show a long history of the Japanese automaker destroying and burying evidence involving safety issues. Biller defended Toyota in a number of rollover lawsuits from 2003-2007.
“Toyota does not believe it has to follow orders or turn over documents,” Biller said earlier this month. “They just don’t think the rules apply to them.”
The contents of Biller’s documents could be made public as early as Wednesday.
References
1. ‘Secret Toyota records…’ view
2. ‘Disputed Toyota documents…’ view
