Former Prosecutor: Disbanding LA USA Public Corruption Unit "Sends A Message"

[DeSwiss]

Former Prosecutor: Disbanding LA USA Public Corruption Unit "Sends A Message"

Talking Points Memo
By Paul Kiel - March 18, 2008, 12:28PM

Yesterday on TPM, Josh http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/183926.php">noted a http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1205491409688">report (sub. req.) in The Recorder, a California legal news publication, that the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, Thomas O'Brien, had disbanded the office's public integrity unit. The 17 attorneys in that section of the office "will be redistributed among the major fraud and organized crime sections, which now will have a mandate to battle corruption," the Recorder reported.

The office's spokesman tried to put as bright a face on it as possible, saying "Our view is that it's a significant enhancement of the public corruption unit. We now have over 70 lawyers who essentially will be able to step up to the plate." That's clearly some weak spin. But I asked a former prosecutor from the office's public integrity unit to give me a sense of what this means. That former prosecutor didn't think the move was "politically motivated," instead attributing the move to a desire to improve the office's statistics. U.S. attorneys frequently experience pressure to increase the number of prosecutions as evidence of performance.

Remember that Justice Department officials used former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam's lower immigration case numbers as justification for her firing (ignoring her office's concentration on busting illegal immigration rings). "Public corruption cases are very difficult and very time consuming," the former prosecutor explained. "A lot of that doesn't result in a statistic." Of course, that doesn't mean that the cases don't have a disproportionate impact. "The fact of an investigation into the earmark process ," really had a huge impact in opening up debate of how that process has been corrupted by money. That doesn't happen if you're not looking at it every day.

"My concern is the message that it sends," the lawyer continued. "The existence of the section, the fact that talented, smart, aggressive prosecutors are looking at cases, sends a message to public officials that they need to be careful." Now another message has been sent.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/former_prosecutor_disbanding_l.php#more">MORE

- That message being: "grab all you can, while no one's watching you. Because we won't be around here much longer...."
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DeSwiss


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[snot]

1. Didn't KO point out tonite,

it was a pub. integrity unit that busted Spitzer?

So they go after a Repub, they're disbanded; and what happened to the unit that went after Spitzer?

[DeSwiss]

2. What happened to the unit that went after Spitzer?

Champagne all round.....

- Problem was, these units were supposed to target Dems. But Carol Lam's snaring of "The Dukester" sort of soured them on the idea, I think....