Moore finds out while he’s on Leno

By Gayl Murphy

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/1/07 — Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore announced that the Bush Administration has subpoenaed him in the wake of his recent trip to Cuba on the July 26 episode of NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” “I haven’t even told my own family yet.” Moore began, “I was just informed when I was back there with Jay that the Bush administration has now issued a subpoena for me.”

The trip was part of his new film “Sicko” which tackles the question of affordable health care in the United States. Moore, who brought 9/11 rescue workers with him on his excursion, explains the reason for his trip, saying: “I Took them to Guantanamo Bay because I heard the Al Qaeda Terrorists we have in the camps there, detained, are receiving free dental, medical, eye care, the whole deal, and our own 9/11 rescue workers can’t get that in New York City.”

In a letter to Moore from a senior official, apparently one of the famed “loyal Bushies,” the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) informed Moore that it was investigating him for possible violation of the embargo. “This office has no record that a specific license was issued authorizing you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba,” wrote Dale Thompson, the office’s chief of general investigations. “Ofac enforcement is conducting a civil investigation for possible unlicensed transactions under the regulations surrounding your trip to Cuba.”

Moore embarrassed Bush with his depiction of a do-nothing President when 9/11 struck in his award-winning doc “Fahrenheit 9/11” and suggested one of his first priorities was to get Arab oil pals safely out of the country.

The letter, first obtained by AP and now an Internet staple said “Ofac has information indicating you claimed to qualify under the provision for general license for full-time journalists,” it said. It noted that while Moore’s film company had made such an application no determination had been made by the time of his trip.”

In a continued effort to help the 9/11 rescue workers, Moore stated that on August 11, the Weinstein Company will be donating 11 percent of the box office receipts from “Sicko” to “help these workers and the other workers who need help,” said Moore.

Also Moore told Leno on the show how his studio asked him to cut a certain segment out of his film. “I just tell the truth in our film. (Hillary Clinton) did something very courageous 14-years ago, saying all American’s should be covered. She got beat up badly for it. Now she’s the second-largest recipient of health care industry money in the U.S. Senate.”

Moore continued: “In fact, I don’t know if I should really talk about this on national television, but you know the head of the studio that’s releasing this film…Harvey Weinstein is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. For the months leading up to the release of the film, he kept calling me every day saying, ‘I want you to take that scene out of the film, attacking Hillary.’ I said, ‘I’m not attacking her, I’m just telling the truth.’”

Moore explained, “I’m going to go after whoever is in power, doesn’t matter if they are Democrat or Republican I’m going to try to be a voice for people that don’t have a voice.”

The segment remains in the film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2007.