A public defender is criticizing U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan for failing to report privileged recordings that were inadvertently obtained by the Western District of Pennsylvania U.S. Attorney’s office, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today.
Mary Beth Buchanan (DOJ)
The Bush-appointed prosecutor ”begrudgingly” helping to address the Allegheny County Jail mistake, federal public defender Lisa Freeland said in a letter to the Allegheny County defense bar that was obtained by the Post-Gazette. The error resulted in taped calls between inmates and lawyers being sent to the Western District office, according to the newspaper. Jail policy prohibits prosecutors from listening to these conversations, the paper said.
The federal public defender said in the letter that Buchanan’s office did not properly inform her of the recordings and was not proactively working to fix the problem.
“The [Assistant U.S. attorneys], I am told, are well trained and know not to listen to attorney-client protected calls,” Freeland said in the letter. “My request for information is just another accusation that they are evil.”
Buchanan told the newspaper that the recordings were never reviewed by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“The incidences in which these communications may have been inadvertently provided to this office are extremely rare,” said in a statement to the Post-Gazette. “We haven’t seen the public defender’s written allegations. Once we see those, we’ll investigate to determine what material was received and whether it was handled appropriately.”
Buchanan has served as the district’s top federal prosecutor since 2001. She also held simultaneous leadership positions at Justice Department headquarters in Washington during the Bush administration. From 2004 to 2005, she headed the Executive Office of United States Attorneys and came under scrutiny in the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation of events leading up to the 2006 U.S. Attorney firings. Democrats have also accused her of targeting Democrats for prosecution. Buchanan has denied those allegations.
