TPM:
Earlier this week, we reported on the decision by U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Thomas O'Brien to disband the office's public corruption unit. The official line from O'Brien was that disbanding the 17-lawyer unit would actually boost the number of public corruption investigations, because other units would now have the opportunity to take on such cases. The was a line of reasoning with which a former prosecutor from that office disagreed.
And not surprisingly, the current lawyers there don't think much of that either. But, reports The Los Angeles Times, O'Brien warned them not to dispute that publicly:
[I]n interviews with The Times, several members of the disbanded unit challenged that explanation, saying the move was intended to punish lawyers for a perceived failure to produce and for bad-mouthing their boss, U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O'Brien.
The lawyers described a meeting last week in which an angry O'Brien derided attorneys in the office for working too few hours, filing too few cases and for speaking ill of him to subordinates.
They said O'Brien also threatened to tarnish their reputations if they challenged the official explanation for the unit's dismantling in conversations with reporters.
Members of the unit contacted by The Times either spoke on the condition that they not be named or declined to comment. Several said they wanted to talk about the situation but feared reprisals if they did so.
Lawyers from that office also say that O'Brien's move might lead to an increase in the number of prosecutions, but they will be more in the mold of "filings against postal employees stealing mail and other relatively minor cases but 'don't look for any long, drawn-out City Hall corruption cases.'"
O'Brien certainly needs to be probe into if this is a case of harrassment to the employees. That is certainly a violation in the employment handbook.
On a side note: O'Brien replaced Debra Yang, the USA that was alleged to be connected to the USA firing scandal. Yang resigned as USA, and she denied being fired.
1 comment:
This is a new Legal System where Republicans threaten those who follow the oath of office. O'Brian is just another Bush lackey who is as corrupt as the Attorney General. I was wondering John Mitchell an Attorney General under the impeached Richard Nixon went to jail for his crimes yet this Democratic Party seems to have a problem bring these criminal Republicans to Justice. Now who's fooling who hear. Our Law Makers are baby boomers and most were law students and even worked in Government during the Watergate period. Now it's like they all have Alzheimer's or selective memory. The Republicans quickly imposed an illegal law to try and impeach Clinton but the Democrats act like they don't know what their doing.
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