Dennis Pfannenschmidt

Dennis Pfannenschmidt, the interim U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, isn’t looking for a permanent appointment, he told The Cumberland Sentinel this week.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Pfannenschmidt earlier this month after the resignation of Martin C. Carlson, a Bush administration appointee who’d run the office since May 2001. Carlson left to become a U.S. magistrate judge in Harrisburg, Pa.

Pfannenschmidt was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from October 1988 to August. He also served as chief of the office’s civil division from 2002 through 2009. Before joining the office, Pfannenschmidt was a senior deputy attorney general for the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General in the criminal law division. He also worked as an assistant district attorney in Centre County, Pa. The Pittsburgh native attended Dickinson School of Law, the newspaper said.

There’s no word yet on who President Obama intends to nominate as head of the Scranton-based district.

Bill Richardson

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will not face criminal charges in a yearlong investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of his donors, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press.

According to the AP:

The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the person told The Associated Press.

Richardson, who was in line to become commerce secretary in the Obama administration, withdrew his name as a result of the probe. The governor professed innocence but said the investigation would delay his confirmation.

The federal grand jury investigation began in 2008. Authorities sought to determine whether the selection of California-based CDR Financial Products as an adviser on state transportation bond transactions was influenced by political contributions. Investigators also reviewed whether Richardson’s former chief of staff, David Contarino, was involved in the hire.

The post was updated on 9/4/09.

It seems like every hour the New Jersey media is reporting on a new controversy with ties to former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, who is the Republican running for New Jersey governor against Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

On Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown resigned after news surfaced that Christie had loaned her $46,000 but did not report it on his tax returns or financial disclosure forms. It was also reported this week that Christie had been ticketed in 2005 for speeding and driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. Read our previous report here.

Now, in a mock news show from the Christie campaign, “Flash Silverstein” reports that Christie stole a penny from the penny tray at a local convenience store and Corzine is on the attack.

Here’s the report:

“This morning, Chris Christie stopped for a bottle of water at his local convenience store. At the cash register, Christie nabbed a penny from the penny tray to cover his $1.36 tab, but did not put a penny back. The Corzine campaign bought their 16th ad space on PolitickerNJ.com to launch a new attack ad asking, ‘If he’ll take your change, what else of yours is really safe?’ “

If you have your own satirical breaking news headline, the Christie campaign says you can post it at #notnews on Twitter.

The New York Times has the latest on the doping case in California. In a 9-to-2 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that prosecutors improperly seized drug tests for about 100 major league baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, writing for the majority, called the seizure an “obvious case of deliberate overreaching by the government.” Click here for a copy of the opinion, which was published Wednesday.

Authorities from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California seized the tests in 2004, hoping to use them to question players about their suppliers in a wider investigation into steroid distribution. The Major League Baseball Players Association has been fighting to have the drug-testing information destroyed.

The Justice Department, which declined to comment on the ruling, must now decide whether to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the past year, players Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were outed in news reports as having tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts is looking for feedback on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, better known as PACER, The Blog of Legal Times reported today.

Administrative Office spokesperson Richard Carelli told The BLT that users can give their input on all aspects of the 21-year-old Web portal that charges a fee to access court documents.

The service has started to face competition from RECAP, a free court records retrieval system. PACER offered its service for free in September 2008, but unexpectedly ended the trial program after the FBI said PACER was “compromised,” according to The BLT. RECAP was using the free access to retrieve thousands of records at the time, The BLT said.

Michael Bromwich (PBS.org)

UPDATE (8/27 12:33 p.m.): We have another finalist! We’re told Fried Frank partner Michael Bromwich, the former Justice Department inspector general, has also interviewed with Norton. For our previous story on Bromwich’s candidacy, click here.

And in case you missed our earlier update, we answered a question that has long eluded us: whether Norton will fetch up one name to the president or several. A Democratic source with knowledge of the process said there would be multiple candidates submitted to the White House. In the past, Norton only forwarded one candidate.

***

Anjali Chaturvedi (Nixon Peabody)

The U.S. attorney selection process in the District is winding down. The local nominating commission has made its recommendations to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she recently interviewed two candidates, Nixon Peabody partner Anjali Chaturvedi and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner Ron Machen, according to people familiar with the situation.

Ron Machen (Wilmer Hale)

We’re told Channing Phillips, the District’s acting U.S. attorney and longtime principal assistant U.S. attorney, is still in the running, but it’s unclear whether he’s met with Norton. Phillips declined to comment while “this process is still ongoing.” Machen also declined to comment, and Chaturvedi did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.

Phillips took over as the District’s top prosecutor in May, after Jeffrey Taylor stepped down for a position at Ernst & Young.

A lingering question is whether Norton will submit one name to the White House or several. In the past, she plucked her favorite from the commission’s slate and forwarded it to the president. (She selected Attorney General Eric Holder for the post in 1993 and Wilma Lewis, now an assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior, in 1998.) Norton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE (8/27 10:11 a.m.): A Democratic source with knowledge of the process said there would be multiple candidates submitted to the White House.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is the largest in the country, with more than 350 assistant U.S. attorneys and more than 350 support personnel. The office prosecutes federal and local crimes.

The 17-member nominating commission, assembled by Norton, began accepting applications for U.S. attorney in April and interviewing candidates in May. We previously reported the names of three other candidates who put in for the job, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Roy Austin Jr, Fried Frank partner Michael Bromwich, and Shanlon Wu, of Wheat Wu.

Let’s take a quick look at our finalists.

Anjali Chaturverdi:

• Chaturvedi (Cornell, Georgetown Law) is a partner at Nixon Peabody, specializing in government investigations and complex civil and criminal matters.
• Spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor on both the East and West Coast. (She was chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and deputy chief of the Felony Trial Section in the D.C. office.)
• Handled more than two dozen jury trials as a prosecutor.
• Was counsel to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• Recently defended former Applix, Inc., CEO Alan C. Goldsworthy against allegations of accounting fraud.

Ron Machen:

• Machen (Stanford, Harvard Law) is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. He is a member of the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department and Investigations and Criminal Litigation Practice Group.
• Joined the firm in 1993 but left to clerk for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
• Was a federal prosecutor in the D.C. office from  1997 to 2001. (He worked in the Fraud and Public Corruption Section and the Homicide Section.)
• Handled more than 20 jury trials as a federal prosecutor.
• Has represented a number of high-profile clients at Wilmer, including Boeing Co., CitiGroup Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing then-Rep. Randy “Dukeâ€� Cunningham (R-Calif.).

Channing Phillips:

• Phillips (UVa, Howard Law) is currently the district’s acting U.S. attorney.
• Joined the office in 1994 as line prosecutor.
• Spent four years at Main Justice as a trial lawyer in the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
• Served as chief of staff and special counsel to the District’s top prosecutor before then-U.S. Attorney Ken Wainstein tapped Phillips as principal assistant U.S. attorney in 2004. Taylor, who succeeded Wainstein, kept him in the office’s No. 2 position.
• In addition to helping the U.S. attorney manage day-to-day operations, Phillips was the office’s chief spokesman.

Hassan Nemazee

Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee was released from jail Wednesday after being charged with one count of bank fraud, The Associated Press reported. The New York financier agreed to a $25 million bail package that requires him to pledge two of his properties as collateral within a week. Nemazee, who was the finance chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, will remain under house arrest in his $20 million Manhattan apartment and wear a monitoring bracelet, according to reports. He also is barred from using computers or the Internet or getting new cell phones or bank loans.

On Sunday, FBI agents stopped Nemazee at Newark International Airport as he tried to board a flight to Rome and asked to interview him. The following day, he repaid a $74 million Citibank loan. On Tuesday he was arrested and charged with one count of bank fraud. Prosecutors said he used “fraudulent and forged” documents to get the loan. Nemazee is chairman and chief executive of Manhattan-based Nemazee Capital Corp.

From the New York FBI news release:

Furthermore, on many of the documents at issue, Nemazee falsely provided as the address and telephone numbers of various financial institutions purportedly vouching for his financial strength an address and telephone number that was, in fact, controlled by Nemazee. As a result, in the event anyone at Citibank made an effort to confirm the existence of the assets reflected on the fraudulent documents submitted by Nemazee, they would in fact be contacting a telephone number assigned to Nemazee himself, and not any financial institution.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John M. Hillebrecht and Daniel W. Levy are prosecuting the case.

Nemazee’s attorney, Marc Mukasey — a former prosecutor who is the son of ex-Attorney General Michael Mukasey — called the bail terms “Draconian” and “staggering.” Hillebrecht argued Nemazee is a flight risk. The prosecutor said releasing Nemazee without an electronic bracelet “would be a huge mistake,” The AP reported.

Acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra has waded into the political battle over Chris Christie’s tenure as the state’s top federal prosecutor, lashing out at about controversies surrounding his former boss in an email to his staff.

Marra at the July 23 Operation Bid Rig news conference that sparked an ethics inquiry into his remarks. (Getty Images)

Christie, a Republican, is locked in an increasingly bitter race for New Jersey governor against incumbent Jon Corzine, a Democrat. Marra’s email, disclosed Wednesday by the PolitickerNJ blog, denounced as ”wholly trumped up” a complaint against him that sparked a Department of Justice ethics inquiry. He said the U.S. Attorney’s office “has been unfairly drawn into a political campaign through [a] barrage of FOIA requests” from the Corzine campaign. And he expressed “great regret” at the resignation of acting First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown after controversy erupted over an unreported loan Christie made to her.

Marra also notes in the e-mail that Marc Larkins is now the office’s acting First Assistant, while Marc Ferzan is the acting Executive Assistant and acting Deputy U.S. Attorney for Southern New Jersey.

We’ll get to Marra’s email below, as well as an assessment from Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) that Marra has “completely compromised any sense of neutrality.” But first, here’s a recap of the mounting list of controversies stemming from Christie’s tenure as U.S. Attorney:

• Christie’s office awarded a no-bid court monitoring contract worth up to $52 million in 2007 to the consulting firm headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Democrats have called the contract “outrageous,” and Corzine’s campaign has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for more information about it.
• Former Bush White House advisor Karl Rove told the House Judiciary Committee that while Christie was still serving as U.S. Attorney, they had spoken about Christie’s desire to run for governor. Democrats pounced, calling the revelation evidence that Christie had improperly mixed politics with his prosecuting job.
• Marra then came under investigation by the Department of Justice’s internal ethics watchdog over remarks he made at a July 23 news conference announcing arrests of 44 people — including two mayors close to Corzine — in a public corruption investigation called Operation Bid Rig. Marra said the “few people that want to change” New Jersey corruption “seem to get shouted down” – remarks that Democrats interpreted as intended to boost his former boss, who is running against Corzine on an anti-corruption platform.
• On Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele Brown resigned after news surfaced that Christie had loaned her $46,000 but not had not reported it on his tax returns or financial disclosure forms. Corzine supporters had previously complained that Brown had been assigned to work on their FOIA requests about Christie’s tenure, which the office has yet to fulfill.
• On Wednesday news reports revealed that Christie had been ticketed in 2005 for speeding and driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. In the car with him, his wife and children was Brown, the recipient of the loan. A Christie spokeswoman acknowledged that Christie had mentioned during the traffic stop that he was the state’s top federal prosecutor. He was allowed to drive away.

Here’s the text of Marra’s e-mail:

From: Marra, Ralph (USANJ)
To: USANJ-ALL_NJUSAO_Personnel
Sent: Tue Aug 25 16:51:07 2009
Subject: Michele Brown

Everyone:

It’s with great regret that I’ve accepted Michele’s resignation as an AUSA, effective today.  Michele has had a distinguished 18 year career in this Office and has been a wonderful friend and colleague.  We wish her the best.

Effective tomorrow Marc Larkins will take over as Acting First Assistant and Marc Ferzan will wear the hats of Acting Executive Assistant and Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney for the South.

I know how distracting these transitions can be and this one has been made more difficult as the Office has been unfairly drawn into a political campaign through the barrage of FOIA requests; the purported controversy over Michele’s personal loan, and a wholly trumped up (and then apparently leaked) complaint, reportedly about my generic and general comments at the Bid Rig press conference and the timing of the Bid Rig takedown.

We owe it to the public and ourselves to keep the work of the Office going at our usual pace and at our usual standard of excellence.

Ralph

Here’s the response from Pallone, the honorary chairman of Corzine’s campaign who complains that Marra has dragged the ”dedicated professionals” in the office into politics. The letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder obtained by PolitickerNJ.com:

TO:       U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

CC:     Ralph Marra,
Acting U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey
Newark U.S. Attorney’s Office   970 Broad Street, 7th Floor
Newark, NJ 07102

From:   Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr.
237 Cannon Building
Washington,D.C. 20515

August 26, 2009

The Honorable Eric Holder, United States Attorney General:

In light of comments originating from the United State Attorney’s Office last night following the announced resignation of Assistant United States Attorney Michele Brown, I want to convey significant concerns with the way the office has handled the Corzine Campaign’s requests for information to this point as well as Acting United States Attorney Ralph Marra’s public comments regarding this matter.

In Mr. Marra’s letter to the entire staff in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he characterized the information requested as a “barrage of requestsâ€� and termed them “politicalâ€�.  In fact, it was more than 161 days ago that his office received basic Freedom of Information Act requests for the schedules, travel records and other pertinent information relevant to the public trust.  Had his office continued to delay the release of this routine information based on completely reasonable, routine and legal reasons, that would be cause enough for concern.  But last night’s comments from the Acting U.S. Attorney, whose neutrality in the face of the law is of paramount importance, make it clear that he has completely compromised any sense of neutrality. I regard this as a serious breach of ethics.

These statements and actions – or lack of actions – by Mr. Marra, are even more disturbing in light of recent revelations about political, and non-political, activities undertaken by his predecessor, Chris Christie.  Recently, through Congressional testimony, we have learned that Mr. Christie, while he was U.S. Attorney, sought and took political advice regarding a potential run for governor directly from Karl Rove.  This appears to be a direct violation of the Hatch Act.  Further, when it came to light that the second Assistant United States Attorney, Michele Brown, had received an unreported loan from Mr. Christie that she was still in the process of paying back,  Mr. Marra’s office allowed her to continue overseeing the freedom of information requests.  This is despite the fact that they directly affected Mr. Christie, to whom she was personally indebted.  Mr. Marra’s refusal to heed calls to have Ms. Brown removed from handling the FOIA requests in question only compound his compromised neutrality in this matter.  Although Ms. Brown has chosen to resign immediately, Mr. Marra’s actions and comments only make the questions about the way his office is handling these public information requests persist.

I would also like to take this opportunity to let you know just how inappropriate I think the comments in Mr. Marra’s letter to staff were.  The dedicated professionals in that office have no agenda and work in a professional, non-partisan manner to make sure the law is properly enforced.  His internal e-mail appears to be an attempt to make basic requests for information appear to be somehow unfair and “political�.

The FOIA’s submitted in March were requests for the most basic of information and should be filled immediately.  Again, the records the campaign is seeking include basic information from Chris Christie’s time as United States Attorney including budgets , travel expenses and schedules.  The requests are also for details of no-bid contracts Christie awarded, including the one given to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.  Further, the requests for Mr. Christie’s communications with former Bush political advisor Karl Rove, and communications between Mr. Christie and current officials in the United States Attorney’s office since Mr. Christie resigned as U.S. Attorney, are particularly relevant in light of everything reported in the press the past couple of weeks.

The United States Attorney’s office is filled with dedicated, driven, career professionals.  In Mr. Marra’s letter last night, he acknowledged that he is being investigated for his comments and actions with regard to the Bid Rig trial.  While this revelation comes as a surprise to myself and the public at large, I believe it speaks even stronger to the need for Mr. Marra to immediately provide the basic information requested through the public information requests, or step aside from that process.

Sincerely,
Frank Pallone, Jr.
United States Congress

Here is Marra’s statement in response to Pallone’s letter:

We continue to see comments to the effect that certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests relate to routine information that has not been turned over.  In fact, the information sought from all members of the executive office for a full seven years frequently includes references to highly confidential information.  In the thousands of pages gathered in this continuous process, there are, for example, countless direct and indirect references to non-public criminal and civil investigations, meetings with witnesses – many of whom came to us with the intention of providing information on a confidential basis to assist in investigations – and other information that must be minutely scrutinized here and by staff of the FOIA office in Washington.  As one might reasonably expect in dealing with a prosecuting agency that handles more than 900 criminal cases and many times that in civil cases each year, the task is further complicated by attorney-client privileges, attorney work product and other legal and privacy-issue concerns that one would expect to encounter in such a large request.

As we have said previously, we have devoted and continue and devote significant resources daily to the task of fulfilling these FOIA requests.  Some non-confidential information, including, for example, videotapes of press statements and related materials, have been provided to the requestor.  Hundreds of employee hours have been expended to accomplish the task to date, and more time is being expended every day.  Between this office and the FOIA office within the Executive Office for United States Attorneys in Washington, all reasonable efforts are being undertaken on a continuous basis to fulfill the requests.

This post has been updated.

Ed Tarver (Tarverforgeorgiasenate.com)

It will be “nearly impossible” for Georgia taxpayers to avoid picking up the bill for a special election if state Sen. Ed Tarver (D) becomes the Southern District’s U.S. Attorney, Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey told The Augusta Chronicle.  Edmund A. Booth Jr., a Bush holdover, is currently the U.S. Attorney for the district.

The reason? Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) can’t declare Tarver’s state senate seat empty and issue a write of election until Tarver has resigned. The governor also needs time to let a 30-day “candidate qualifying period” lapse before the scheduled Nov. 3 ballot.

If a candidate to replace Tarver does not appear on the ballotU., Purdue will be forced to schedule a special election sometime in 2010, Bailey told the Chronicle. Although it is unclear how much the additional election would cost, a single-issue sales tax referendum voters considered in June cost the city $83,290.

In addition, the Tarver vacancy likely would open up other seats, meaning other special elections for whomever fills Tarver’s seat. Among the politicians looking to replace Tarver are state Rep. Hardie Davis (D), Richmond County State Court Solicitor Harold Jones (D) and Mayor Pro Tem Alvin Mason. Althought Tarver is rumored to be the frontrunner for the job, the White House has made no annoucement on a nominee.

Michael J. Sullivan (Ashcroft Sullivan)

The Boston Globe today mentioned former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan (R) as a possible Republican candidate for the state’s open Senate  The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) late Tuesday means the Bay State will see its first competitive Senate since Sen. John Kerry (D) won election in 1984, the Globe reported.

Sullivan served as U.S. Attorney for most of President George W. Bush’s two terms, from September 2001 until April 17.  He is now a partner at The Ashcroft Group, headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Sullivan was previously the district attorney in Plymouth County, Mass., and he also served in the state house.

However, it’s unlikely a Republican will win the seat in heavily Democratic Massachusetts. If Sullivan ran, it would be more of a favor to the party than as a viable candidate, The Globe indicated. “The party could try to persuade former US Attorney Michael Sullivan to seek the post, but his close association with the Bush administration could burden his candidacy,” The Globe wrote.

As he suffered the final stages of brain cancer, Kennedy last week sent a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick (D) and state lawmakers asking for a change in state law to allow the governor to appoint his replacement, The Associated Press reported. Kennedy had sought to have his seat filled quickly so Democrats would have another vote in Congress for health care reform, one of Kennedy’s signature issues.

Sen. Ted Kennedy

But it doesn’t seem Massachusetts lawmakers are inclined to change the law, which requires the governor to call a special election within 145 to 160 days of the seat becoming vacant, The Associated Press reported. The special election must be held within five months, preceded by a primary five or six weeks before the election.

In addition to Sullivan, others Republicans mentioned as candidates for Kennedy’s seat include state Sen. Scott Brown, businessman Jeff Beatty, former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Chris Egan, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Cooperation and Development, The Associated Press reported.

Possible Democratic candidates include Kennedy’s widow Victoria, Kennedy’s nephew former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, former Rep. Martin Meehan, Reps. Stephen Lynch and Michael Capuano and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, The Globe reported. Reps. Edward Markey, James McGovern and William Delahunt also have been mentioned as possible candidates.