A federal prosecutor who has worked in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., will join the Baltimore City state’s attorney office, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Gregg Bernstein, the incoming Baltimore City state’s attorney, named George Hazel to his administration, but declined to say what position he will assume. However, it is possible he might not be a prosecutor in the office.

Hazel, who Bernstein said is not a member of Maryland’s bar, would be required to join if he was going to  practice law in state court. The next opportunity for him to take the bar exam is in February.

Bernstein told the Sun that Hazel’s inability to practice law in his office until than will not affect his ability to do his new job. “I do not believe it will have any impact on the role he will play within the state’s attorney’s office as part of my team, pending him sitting for and becoming a member of the Maryland bar,” he said.

Hazel has focused on prosecuting violent felony cases, with his most prominent case being the  prosecution of Johnny Butler, who was sentenced to life in prison for a drug-related murder, according to the Sun.

In a statement, Hazel said, “I have spent the majority of my career developing strategies and trying cases in order to get violent offenders off our streets, and I look forward to applying my skills and experience as part of Mr. Bernstein’s leadership team.”

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein announced yesterday the creation of an asset forfeiture and money laundering section for his office. Read the news release here.

Rod Rosenstein (DOJ)

The new section will work with state and local authorities to handle federal, civil and criminal forfeitures and provide guidance on money laundering and other cases involving financial crimes.

Rosenstein — a Bush holdover supported by Maryland Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin — told the Maryland Daily Record that he has “beefed up” his office’s work on these crimes because the Justice Department has encouraged the U.S. Attorneys to “follow the money” in mortgage fraud and other financial criminal cases.

“It takes a certain amount of expertise to trace that money and be familiar with the asset forfeiture provisions to be able to seize that money,” Rosenstein told the newspaper.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stefan Cassella will lead the unit. He was sworn in yesterday after serving in the Justice Department Criminal Division as assistant chief of the asset forfeiture and money laundering Section from 1994 to 2002 and the deputy chief from 2002 to 2007.

He will oversee Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Kay, a 19-year veteran of the office specializing in asset forfeiture, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christen Sproule, who started at the office in January to assist with asset forfeiture and restitution matters. The section will also include supervisory paralegal LaTonia Kelly and paralegal specialist Naquita Ervin.

U.S. Attorney of Maryland Rod Rosenstein, a Bush holdover, has lost his best prosecutors to Main Justice, reports the Washington Post.

The new deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division Jason Weinstein had previously been working in the federal prosecutor’s Baltimore office as the chief of violent crimes.  Another loss has been Mythili Raman, who left her job as Rosenstein’s appellate chief to become chief of staff for Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer.  Raman’s successor is Michael Leotta, a prosecutor in the fraud and corruption unit in Baltimore; Leotta is one of the prosecutors in the case of former lobbyist and John Abramoff associate Kevin Ring.  The final loss was James Trusty, now deputy chief of the national gang unit at Main Justice.  Trusty had previously been the deputy chief of Rosenstein’s Greenbelt office and overseen the prosecution of the MS-13 gang and has been succeeded by Michael Pauzé, who was a prosecutor in the case of former Prince George’s schools chief Andre Hornsby.

But it seems that while Rosenstein’s best prosecutors have left, Rosenstein will stay, for good.

In the process of tapping members of Rosenstein’s staff to move up to Main Justice, Breuer expressed his confidence in Rosenstein, “Rod has cultivated an incredible roster of attorneys, and, knowing Rod, I expect he’ll continue to do just that.”

Most importantly, Maryland’s Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin have expressed support for Rosenstein in his current post.  But they did not support the 2007 nomination of Rosenstein for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.  The Senators have finally found someone to fill the seat, which has been vacant for almost nine years, Andre Davis.  Davis has already been nominated by President Obama, but as we reported last week, his nomination has been delayed for the time being.