Printable Version

Rights/Reprints

The political backlash toward the Justice Department’s plan to consolidate several offices has begun, as Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder protesting the department’s plan to close its Cleveland antitrust division office.

In his letter, Kucinich asked Holder to reconsider his decision to close any department field offices, saying that attorneys in those offices have close ties to their communities. He said that many of the attorneys who will be asked to transfer to new offices may simply decide to leave the department.

“Simply losing these professionals is bad enough; to think that some might use their knowledge of the law to defend wrongdoers without field offices nearby to prosecute is outrageous,” he wrote.

Kucinich said that the Cleveland DOJ antitrust office is located in a federal courthouse. “The federal government loses money when we have empty office space there,” he wrote.

“The Cleveland Field Office and other antitrust field offices are vital presences in their communities,”  he wrote.