Michael J. Moore

Michael J. Moore (Mercer University, Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law) is nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. He would replace Frank Maxwell Wood who was U.S. Attorney from 2001 until July 31, 2009. After resigning, Wood announced his candidacy for Georgia attorney general. The district’s current acting U.S. Attorney is G.F. Pete Peterman III.

His vitals:

• Born in Atlanta in 1968.
• Has owned his private law practice in Warner Robins, Ga., since 2005.
• Has been an administrative law judge for the city of Warner Robins since 2004.
• Was a state senator in Georgia from 2002 to 2003. In 2001, he ran in a special election, which he won in a run-off election. He lost re-election the following year.
• Served as chief financial officer and secretary of his wife’s at-home physical therapy practice, Kids Need Moore, Inc., from 2000 until earlier this year.
• Was a partner at Clarke, Moore and Hall, P.C. in Warner Robins, Ga., from 1997 to 2005.
• Worked as the chief/assistant district attorney in the Houston Judicial Circuit in Perry, Ga., from 1993 to 1997. He previously clerked in the office from 1992 to 1993. In 2004, he unsuccessfully ran for Houston County district attorney.
• Clerked for the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Middle District of Georgia in Macon, Ga., from 1991 to 1992.
• Worked as an insurance fraud/claims investigator at Equifax Services, Inc. in Atlanta from 1989 to 1990.
• Has tried between 100 and 120 cases to verdict or judgment. Approximately one-third of the cases were handled with co-counsel while he served as sole counsel in the remainder.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

On his Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure Moore earned $448,500 as an executor fee from the Beatrice Buice Estate. He also reports liabilities of between $270,005 and $630,000 for two credit lines and three loans for business, investment and partnership.

UPDATE: On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Moore reported assets valued at $2.3 million, mostly from real estate and assets “due from others,” and $1.2 million in liabilities for a net worth of $1.1 million.

Frank Maxwell Wood (DOJ)

A former Republican U.S. Attorney seeking to become Georgia’s attorney general said Thursday if he held the post now he would have joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health care law, The Athens Banner-Herald reported.

During a Thursday campaign debate at the University of Georgia, Frank Maxwell Wood, who headed the Middle District of Georgia U.S. Attorneys office from 2001 until 2009, and former Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens both said they would have joined in the lawsuit if they were in office. Both are seeking the Republican nomination to run for attorney general in November.

After President Barack Obama signed the health care legislation into law late last month, the attorneys general of 13 states filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new law. The suit, spearheaded by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum (R), was filed in the Northern District of Florida. Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli (R) has filed a separate federal suit challenging the law.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker (D), a candidate for governor this year, has come under fire from Republicans for refusing Gov. Sonny Perdue’s (R) request that Georgia join the lawsuit. Baker has said the case made by the attorneys general is weak and that joining the lawsuit would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. The governor has vowed to go around Baker and hire outside counsel to challenge the law, according to the newspaper.

During the debate Thursday, Wood said if elected he would create a division within his office to challenge the new health care law.

“This is a huge, huge step toward socialism that we need to push back on,” Wood said, according to the newspaper. “I think this is a battle we’ll be fighting for years.”

Olens added that an individual mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. “This is an unprecedented federal directive,” he said. “You’re taxing someone for doing nothing.”

Although both candidates disagreed with Baker’s decision not to join the suit, they said they supported his right to do so.

“Ultimately, the attorney general makes his or her own decisions on this type of litigation,” Wood said.

However, both Wood and Olens were critical of Baker’s tenure as attorney general. The two candidates will go head-to-head in the July 20 primary and the winner will face the winner of the Democratic primary — state Rep. Rob Teilhet or former Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges.

Wood, a Bush appointee, headed U.S. Attorney’s office until July 31, 2009. G.F. “Pete” Peterman III became the acting U.S. Attorney for the district after Wood stepped down. Obama has nominated Michael Moore to become the district’s next U.S. Attorney. Moore’s confirmation process appears to have stalled; his nomination has been pending for nearly 200 days — longer than any other Obama U.S. Attorney nominee.

A Middle District of Georgia judge rebuked prosecutors in the Macon-based U.S. Attorney’s Office this week for their failed prosecution of a prominent local lawyer.

In their “relentless pursuit” of Columbus, Ga., lawyer Mark Shelnutt, the Middle District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office likely worked out a “sweetheart deal” with members of an alleged drug ring to gain their cooperation, U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land wrote in a Dec. 14 court order.

“[T]he Court had concerns that the judgment of the U.S. Attorney’s Office may have become clouded by its zeal to bring down a prominent criminal defense attorney,” Land wrote in the order.

Shelnutt represented the alleged drug ring leader, Torrance Hill, who was sentenced in 2007 to 24 years in prison on drug charges. The government later charged Shelnutt in a 40-count indictment alleging money laundering and other offenses. But prosecutors dropped three counts at trial, while a jury acquitted Shelnutt of the remaining charges.

The judge wrote in the order that one of the purported sweetheart deals apparently involved Shawn Bunkley, described by the judge as a “major participant in one of the city’s largest drug conspiracies.” Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of less than 37 months for Bunkley because of his cooperation in the investigation. Land called the proposed sentence “astonishing.” Last week, Bunkley was sentenced to 10 years in prison on drug charges, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

Land said he became especially concerned about potential prosecutorial misconduct after an Assistant U.S. Attorney said he’d lied about about an incident in which he attempted to make a secret recording of a Shelnutt.

Prosecutor Jason Ferguson, who is based at the Albany, Ga., branch of the U.S. Attorney’s office, said during a court hearing that he didn’t admit he was wearing a wire in an interview with Shelnutt, even though Shelnutt asked whether he was being recorded. The Assistant U.S. Attorney said he thought he gained approval from his supervisors to make a secret recording, according to court documents.

“The Court was particularly struck by the zeal with which the U.S. Attorney’s Office pursued Shelnutt and the Court became concerned when it learned of information suggesting that the U.S. Attorney’s Office had crossed the line from independent prosecutor to law enforcement,” Land wrote in the order.

Middle District acting U.S. Attorney G. F. Pete Peterman III declined to comment to Main Justice, citing office policy that generally prohibits commenting on court orders. Peterman took over the office from Frank Maxwell Wood, a George W. Bush appointee who resigned last summer to run for Georgia attorney general.

Wood, who led the office at the early stages of the drug ring prosecutions, told Main Justice that Land’s comments were “very uncalled for.” He said Land lacks the prosecutorial experience necessary to properly comment on how the U.S. Attorney’s office handles its cases. Land spent 16 years in private practice in Columbus, Ga., before he joined the court in the first year of the Bush administration.

“We do what we think is right,” Wood told Main Justice. “But, we don’t work for the judge.”

Land did not name Ferguson or any of the prosecutors involved with the cases in the order.

“The Court derives no satisfaction in its criticism of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Land wrote in a footnote in the order. He added, “The Court also does not seek to publicly embarrass any of these public servants.”

President Obama tapped a former state senator, a state lawmaker and a federal prosecutor for U.S. Attorney posts in Georgia and Massachusetts today.

They are:

-Michael Moore (Middle District of Georgia): The former Georgia state senator and lawyer in Houston County, Ga., would replace Frank Maxwell Wood, who resigned in July. Read our previous report on Moore here.

Ed Tarver (Tarverforgeorgiasenate.com)

-Ed Tarver (Southern District of Georgia): The Georgia state senator and partner at Augusta, Ga. law firm Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley would succeed Edmund A. Booth Jr., who resigned earlier this month. Read more about Tarver here.

Carmen Ortiz (Adelphi Univ.)

-Carmen M. Ortiz (Massachusetts): The Massachusetts Assistant U.S. Attorney would replace Michael J. Sullivan, who stepped down in April to join a law firm headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Read our previous report on the nominee here.

Obama has now made 21 U.S. Attorney nominations. The Senate has confirmed 11 U.S. Attorneys. The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to consider the 10 remaining nominees.

Former Middle District of Georgia U.S. Attorney Frank Maxwell Wood threw his hat into the race for Georgia attorney general as a Republican, The Telegraph in Macon reported today.

Frank Maxwell Wood (DOJ)

Wood, who resigned as U.S. Attorney Friday, filed paperwork yesterday to run for the office that is being vacated by Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Bake, who is seeking the Georgia governor’s mansion. The former U.S. Attorney is the second Republican to announce a bid for attorney general, The Telegraph said. There are also two Democrats who have entered the race, according to the newspaper.

“This is one of the most important offices in our state when it comes to the safety and welfare of Georgia’s families,” Wood said in a news release, according to The Telegraph. “Experience and qualifications are absolutely vital. I am running to prosecute criminals and protect Georgia’s families. I want no political games, no political posturing.”

The former U.S. Attorney, a Bush appointee, served as the top federal prosecutor in the Middle District from 2001 until July 31, 2009. We previously reported that G.F. “Pete” Peterman III became the acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District after Wood stepped down. President Obama has yet to nominate a permanent U.S. Attorney for the office.

G.F. “Pete” Peterman III will be the acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia after Frank Maxwell Wood steps down today, The Associated Press reported.

The soon-to-be acting U.S. Attorney has worked in the Middle District office since 1990. He became the office’s criminal division chief in 1996 and its First Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1998. Peterman also served two prior stints as acting U.S. Attorney in 2000 and 2001.

He will serve as U.S. Attorney until there is a Senate-confirmed appointee for the Middle District. President Obama has yet to announce as U.S. Attorney nominee for the office.