U.S. Investigating Michael Moore for Trip to Cuba
Controversial filmmaker didn't get OK to travel to the communist country.
May 11, 2007 — -- Though controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has not been charged with a crime, he could be in big trouble for taking an unauthorized trip to Cuba.
Moore, no friend of the Bush administration, won an Academy Award for his film "Fahrenheit 911," which portrayed President Bush as a buffoon. Moore even crashed the Republican National Convention in 2004.
Now Moore's latest project may get him into real legal trouble.
"They're trying to intimidate him, and he's a great big target," said Ken Sunshine, Moore's publicist.
For his new film, "Sicko," billed as an expose of the U.S. health-care system, Moore took ground zero workers who were denied health care in the United States to Cuba for free medical treatment.
His point was to show the communist country's health-care system is better than the U.S. system.
But Americans can't travel to Cuba without express permission from the government. Moore didn't have that permission, so the Treasury Department is now investigating him. He has been asked to "provide this [the Treasury] office with a written detailed report of your alleged trip to Cuba."
In a statement, a producer of the film said, "The efforts of the Bush administration to conduct a politically motivated investigation of Michael Moore and 'Sicko' will not stop us from making sure the American people see this film."
Conservatives bristle not only at Moore's message but also at the fact that if charged and convicted of unlawful travel to Cuba, Moore would only face a fine.
"He was gonna go anyway and he was gonna hope the Bush administration was gonna come after him, and he was gonna argue that he's the victim of a conspiracy and get free publicity, that's the bottom line," said conservative talk show host Larry Elder.
Sunshine admits that the controversy draws more attention to the film.
"On some some level of course it helps. I mean, we're now talking about this documentary, and word of mouth is important in promoting movies," Sunshine said.
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