Monica Conyers (U.S. Marshals)

The wife of House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) cannot afford an attorney and will get a public defender to handle her appeal of a 37-month prison sentence stemming from a bribery charge, The Associated Press reported.

Last week, former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers was sentenced to three years and one month in prison for her part in the bribery scandal. She pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy for accepting at least $6,000 in exchange for her support of a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract for Houston-based Synagro Technologies. The ex-council member tried to withdraw her guilty plea last week saying she was “badgered” into making the deal. But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said her plea was made voluntarily.

Monica Conyers, who signed an affidavit declaring she can’t afford a lawyer, has no money, according to Steve Fishman, the attorney who negotiated her guilty plea, according to AP. A federal judge on Tuesday declared Monica Conyers indigent based on “a detailed description of her financial resources in the presentence investigation report and [the information] that Mrs. Conyers was on her own — so to speak — as to such resources.”

John Conyers (gov)

That means her husband — the second-longest serving current member of the House who earns an annual salary of $174,000 — will not help pay for a private attorney, according to The National Law Journal. A spokeswoman for Conyers did not have an immediate response as to whether the Judiciary Committee chairman was unwilling to pay for an attorney, Politico reported.

According to federal guidelines, a family member’s wealth, in this case the congressman, cannot be considered when determining a defendant’s ability to pay, “unless the family indicates willingness and financial ability to retain counsel promptly.”

Douglas Mullkoff of Ann Arbor has been assigned to represent Monica Conyers.

Former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), was sentenced to three years and one month in prison Wednesday for her part in a bribery scandal.

Monica Conyers (U.S. Marshals)

She pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy for accepting at least $6,000 in exchange for her support of a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract for Synagro Technologies. The ex-council member tried to withdraw her plea Wednesday saying she was “badgered” into making the deal, according to the Associated Press. But, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said her plea was made voluntarily, according to the AP.

“If I have to, I’ll go to jail for what I’ve done, but I won’t go for what I didn’t do,” Conyers told the judge, according to Detroit’s WXYZ-TV.

Monica Conyers is slated to begin her prison sentence on July 1 but has 10 days to appeal her sentence. She will also serve two years of probation.

According to Roll Call, it is unclear whether John Conyers attended the sentencing, but he was not present for any of the  House roll call votes Wednesday afternoon. A representative for John Conyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Main Justice.

John and Monica Conyers have been married for 20 years.

John Conyers, who sits on the House panel that conducts Justice Department oversight, was not involved the bribery scandal, Roll Call said.

The new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan is getting ready to crack the whip in her Detroit-based office, the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, who was sworn into office early last month, told the newspaper that improving the efficiency of her 108-employee office is one of her top priorities.

“We have a number of seasoned, experienced lawyers in the office, but many of them have been around for a very long time, and we get into sort of complacent habits,” McQuade told the Free Press. The “we” applies to her as well: She has worked in the office since 1998.

Barbara McQuade (DOJ)

The Detroit-based U.S. Attorney said she is considering dividing up office divisions that have “grown too big” and giving more staffers managerial responsibilities, according to the newspaper. Last week, she shook up the office by making several changes to her office’s leadership.

“We’ve sort of promoted people for life, and then they sort of sit there, and although they have a lot to offer, we haven’t tried new ideas because people have been occupying the same places for a long time,” McQuade told the Free Press. “I think giving people different opportunities to lead and share their ideas is very important.”

McQuade told the newspaper that she made up her mind that she wanted to be U.S. Attorney when she wasn’t promoted to criminal division chief for the Eastern District office in 2008. She then met with local lawyers, judges and politicians to gather their opinions on the office, according to the newspaper. They told her that Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Attorney’s Office was having a productivity problem, the Free Press said.

Then-U.S. Attorney candidate McQuade presented a plan to address office output to a U.S. Attorney screening panel, according to the newspaper. A member of the committee told the Free Press that’s McQuade’s decision to make a plan was “virtually unheard of.”

Although addressing office productivity is important, McQuade also told the newspaper that fighting violent crime, terrorism and public corruption are priorities.

Her office is handling the case against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly hid explosives in his underwear in a failed attempt to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. The office also is prosecuting a public corruption case involving former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, who is married to Democratic House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan.

Former Eastern District of Michigan Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino will represent a former state representative embroiled in a Michigan bribery scandal, The Detroit Free Press reported this afternoon.

Convertino will defend former state Rep. Mary Waters. Waters and political consultant Sam Riddle were charged with paying a $12,500 bribe to a Southfield councilman to receive approval to relocate and expand a pawnshop. Riddle also faces charges in connection with a case that snared former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.).

Monica Conyers pleaded guilty last month with taking bribes to vote in favor of a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract for Synagro Technologies. Riddle, a former aide to Monica Conyers, is also charged in the Synagro matter. Read our previous post on Monica Conyers here.

Convertino received national media attention for his handling of a 2003 terrorism trial, which prompted a DOJ ethics investigation into whether he committed misconduct. Two of the defendants in the case were found guilty, but their convictions were overturned. The former federal prosecutor was acquitted in 2007 of conspiring to hide evidence in the case. We previously reported that he is suing the DOJ to find out who leaked the news of the ethics investigation.

A former Department of Justice trial attorney resigned from a court monitor position in Detroit after a federal judge confronted her about  “meetings of a personal nature” with Kwame Kilpatrick, the scandal-plagued former mayor of Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Sheryl Robinson Wood

Sheryl Robinson Wood, a partner in the Washington and Baltimore offices of Venable LLP, resigned last Thursday. The incident became public on Friday, when U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. issued an order announcing Wood’s resignation. You can read the order here.

Wood was appointed to the court monitor position in 2003 “with the assistance of Kroll, Inc.,” the order says. Wood – who at the time was known as Sheryl L. Robinson — is a former employee of the international risk assessment firm, the Free Press said.

Wood was hired to ensure the Detroit police complied with agreements it signed in 2003 to avert a DOJ Civil Rights Division federal lawsuit over questionable shootings of civilians and other matters. Her team of monitors earned $183,680 a month, the newspaper said.

According to the Free Press, the Department of Justice alerted the judge to the “meetings of a personal nature” with Kilpatrick, who resigned last year after pleading guilty in a complex case involving text messages between him and his chief of staff, with whom the mayor was having an extramarital affair, and with whom he was discussing all kinds of illegal stuff, including their knowledge of “fronts” used in municipal bidding processes and their use of city funds for romantic getaways.

In March 2008 the Detroit City Council passed a non-binding resolution seeking Kilpatrick’s resignation. The only member to vote “no” was Monica Conyers, the wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, who recently pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and quit the Council.

Wood is a 1987 graduate of Howard University who received her law degree at George Washington University Law School. She is a former trial attorney at Main Justice in the Antitrust and Civil Rights divisions. She also served as deputy director of the DOJ’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison.

Read her bio here.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) had a lot on his mind going into a House subcommittee hearing today on the Bureau of Prisons.

John Conyers (Gov)

His wife, former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, pleaded guilty in federal court last month to one count of conspiring to commit bribery and could spend up to five years in prison. Last week, a conservative legal group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate whether he was a player in his wife’s corruption scandal.

At the panel hearing, Conyers wanted BOP Director Harley Lappin to give him a general assessment of U.S. prison life.

“I don’t know if there’s anything called prisoner morale, but what’s it like in the slammer?” Conyers asked.

The House Judiciary chair and House Judiciary crime, terrorism and homeland security subcommittee members also had concerns about prison overcrowding and insufficient staffing.

BOP received $5.6 billion last year. President Obama requested almost $6 billion for the bureau this year. The House Appropriations Committee report that accompanied the legislation on the DOJ budget called the understaffing “chronic.” The report said staffing problems were the result of “inadequate budget requests.”

“Our number one priority right now in the Bureau of Prisons  is increasing the number of staff in our institutions that directly supervise inmates,” Lappin said.

A conservative legal group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct this week to investigate whether House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) was a player in his wife’s corruption scandal, The Washington Post reported today.

Monica Conyers (U.S. Marshals)

Former Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers resigned from her post last month after she pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiring to commit bribery. She could spend up to five years in prison for allegedly accepting at least $6,000 to support a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract for Synagro Technologies.

The Landmark Legal Foundation called 0n the House ethics committee to investigate whether the House member broke any rules by not recording on his financial disclosure forms payments his wife took, according to The Post. A spokesperson for the congressman declined to comment to The Post.

John Conyers (Gov)

The legal group also asked the panel to look into a 2007 letter in which the House Judiciary chair asked the Environmental Protection Agency to quickly approve a waste project that would have helped a backer of his wife, The Post said. The letter originally came from his wife’s office. The spokesperson for the congressman told The Post he made the request to help his constituents.   Read our detailed report on the allegations here.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Terrence Berg said his office doesn’t have any evidence that would connect the congressman to his wife’s illegal activities. Several news outlets have reported that Conyers and his wife have led relatively separate lives during their 20-year marriage.

Monica Conyers

A paralegal at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit has been suspended due to suspicions that she leaked confidential information to Monica Conyers’s former chief of staff Sam Riddle, while he was under criminal investigation, reports the Detroit News.

When asked by telephone whether she was still working as a paralegal in the U.S. Attorney’s special prosecutions unit, Wendolyn Greene responded with a curt “no,” and hung up the phone.

When the paper called U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Gina Balaya to find out more, they were told “We had an employee by that name; I don’t know her status.”  Balaya later called the paper back to clarify, saying that Greene “is still an employee of this office.”  But beyond that, “we can’t discuss her status at all,” she said.

The controversy came around the time that Synagro Technologies Inc.’s bribery scandal became public, which was about a year ago.  Greene has been dating Riddle, and federal officials suspected that Greene leaked information regarding an ongoing federal investigation, the paper’s source said.

One source told the paper that officials suspected that Greene told Riddle about a search of someone’s home that was part of a Detroit City Hall investigation. The investigation of Greene is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids in order to avoid any conflict of interest, sources told the paper.

To read our report on the Synagro Technologies Inc. bribery scandal, click here.  To read about John Conyers has become implicated in the scandal click here.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has been implicated in the corruption scandal involving his wife Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, reports The Detroit Free Press.

Monica Conyers (U.S. Marshals)

As in any alleged bribery scheme, it’s a little convoluted.  But here goes: Monica Conyers’s former chief of staff Sam Riddle told the paper that John Conyers’s congressional office drafted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of a company that is now accused of making an indirect kickback to the congressman’s wife.

We reported earlier today that Conyers has submitted her resignation to the city clerk’s office, after pleading guilty to bribery last week.

Terrence G. Berg (USDOJ)

While Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Terrence Berg says that ”We didn’t have any evidence the congressman was knowingly or intentionally involved in Ms. Conyers’ illegal conduct,” Riddle’s claims certainly raise some red flags.  Riddle says that Monica Conyers got him a consulting job with entrepreneur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas in 2007.  The job paid $20,000, out of which Riddle claims he gave Monica Conyers $10,000 in cash as a finder’s fee.

As Riddle told the Free Press:

“While I felt it was a bit exorbitant, it didn’t feel that bad given the workload, which was nil,” Riddle said, adding, “It was clear he was dealing with me because of Monica, not because of any special skill set he was hoping to gain with me.”

One of Papas’ companies, Environmental Geo-Technologies (EGT), needed federal approval for an agreement to operate the Romulus hazardous waste injection wells for Detroit’s Police and Fire Retirement System.  Riddle told the Free Press that John Conyers sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on Papas’ behalf to make sure the agreement went through.  As proof, Riddle provided a draft of the letter, which a staffer in John Conyers’ office sent to his wife’s office with a cover page saying ”Draft Letter for approval.”  The letter, which Riddle says was generated by his boss, is identical to the final letter that was sent to the EPA.

The letter starts off by noting that the EPA had terminated the permits necessary to operate the injection wells, which may “constitute a denial of EGT’s due process rights.”  It then goes on to note that “it is my undertanding” that all noncompliance issues have been resolved and that EGT is very committed to the project.  The EPA ultimately rejected Conyers’s request.

While contacting a federal agency regarding a matter in which he had a financial interest would be a clear violation of House ethics rules, it is unclear if the congressman knew about any alleged financial connection between his wife and Papas.

Congressman John Conyers receiving visitors from Detroit (house.gov)

The Free Press also included these “additional facts” at the end of the article:

The Detroit police and fire pension fund’s investment in a star-crossed Romulus deep-injection well project is one of several troubling deals involving the city’s public pensions.

In a series of investigations, the Free Press has revealed that the city’s two pension funds — one for police and fire, the other for general city employees — have:

• Lost more than $2 billion, 30% of their value, during an 18-month period ending in December.

• Lost about $90 million on three bad deals alone in 2008 in which warning signs appeared to be obvious.

• Spent $380,000 in the past year for pension trustees, staffers and lawyers to travel the globe to attend conferences, including one trustee who spent more than $100,000.

In the Romulus project, the police and fire fund invested more than $42 million in the wells, which are widely opposed by Romulus and surrounding communities. The fund has written off $32 million of that debt, and put the wells’ value at $10 million.

Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), submitted a resignation letter today to the city clerk’s office, days after she pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiring to commit bribery. She will step down from her job July 6.

Monica Conyers (U.S. Marshals)

We previously reported that Conyers could spend up to five years in prison for allegedly accepting at least $6,000 to support a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract for Synagro Technologies.

“I am glad she did the right thing and resigned from the Detroit City Council,” said Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. in a statement. “Now we, as a council and a city, can move on and forward in focusing on the vital issues our city faces – and we will.”

Read The Detroit Free Press article here.