to Exclude Testimony of Plaintiffs' Witness Michael S. Smith, voicing, for the first time, its concern over the Special Master's retention of Mr. Smith. In that motion, Interior argued that "[t]he Special Master did not inform Interior before he hired Mike Smith, a witness to the events being investigated, to assist him in his investigation of NAID's claims." Id. at 3. The agency further insisted that "Mr. Smith did more than just assist in the investigation. According to the Special *108 Master's billing information, Mr. Smith actually drafted portions of the Interim Report." Id. In support, Interior cited four of the time sheet entries filed in the Special Master's March and April monthly reports  the two mentioned above (indicating that MSS "drafted 8QR analysis") and two attributableto EKV (Edward Volz, the Special Master's assistant) (indicating that, on April 15, 2003 Edward Volz "[a]ssisted the Special Master and Mike Smith editing report on the 8th Quarterly Report" and, on April 16, 2003, "[a]ssisted Mike Smith editing and organizing materials for report on the 8th Quarterly Report."). Id.
On May 13, 2003, Interior filed a Motion to Supplement its Objections to the Interim Report of the Special Master Regarding the Filing of Interior's Eighth Quarterly Report, maintaining that, "[a]fter its Objections were filed, [it] learned, based in part upon invoices submitted by the Special Master on May 6, 2003, the Special Master secretly hired one of the principal witnesses to the events described in the Interim Report to assist with his investigation and with the drafting of