Local ex-AUSA shines during scandal

The Honors Program has been described as the "jewel" of the Justice Department because it used to have the brightest young lawyers in the country.

But a report was issued this week, explaining how during the Bush Administration, the Honors Program became politicized, screening out qualified applicants because they were members of organizations that appeared to be liberal (like American Constitution Society or Greenpeace) or had other items on their resumes indicating that they weren't staunch right wing Republicans.

There was one bright light, highlighted in the report -- Dan Fridman, a then-AUSA who was doing a detail at Justice in DC (in full disclosure, Dan is a friend of mine and I have blogged about him before here.). Dan was part of the committee chosen to screen applicants for interviews. Dan wanted to screen ... (take a deep breath!) ... based on merit (!!), but was told his job was to weed out the "wackos" (read: the liberals). Dan refused and continued to recommend candidates for interviews based on merit, not on ideology. The money quote of the 100+ page report:

In addition, we believe that various employees in the Department
deserve credit for raising concerns about the apparent use of political or
ideological consideration in the Honors Program and SLIP hiring
processes. For example, Daniel Fridman deserves praise for reporting
his concerns about the process in 2006 to both his supervisor and
Elston and for avoiding the use of improper considerations in his review
of candidates for the Honors Program and SLIP. A few DOJ political
employees also objected to the apparent use of political or ideological
considerations in the hiring process, such as Assistant Attorneys
General Peter Keisler and Eileen O’Connor, and they should be credited
for raising their concerns. Certain career employees, particularly in the
Tax Division and the Civil Division, also pressed concerns about the
hiring process. By contrast, we believe that others in the Department,
such as Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer and OARM
Director Louis DeFalaise, did not sufficiently address the complaints
about the deselections.

There's a ton more here to read. I enjoyed reading the"Fridman criteria" for receiving an interview:

To identify a subset of highly qualified candidates, we relied on
criteria that one of the Screening Committee members, Daniel Fridman,
described as an indication that the candidates were so highly qualified
that they merited just a quick check before he approved them. Fridman
said that if candidates attended a top 20 law school, were in the top
20 percent of their respective classes, or were at a school that did not
rank students, he tended to approve them automatically unless they
had a C on their transcripts.30 We refer to these criteria as the
“Fridman criteria.”

Here's Keith Olbermann on the whole thing (and he mentions Dan by name):



Of course, anyone who knows Dan, knows he would do the right thing. In fact, see our post here from January 2006:

Congrats to AUSA Daniel Fridman (from this District). He has accepted a special assignment to work with the Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Paul McNulty (the #2 guy at DOJ in DC) on shaping the administration's criminal and civil rights policy. Those that know Dan, know that he is a good and fair prosecutor and I hope he uses the time in DC to promote his even-tempered philosophy.

Dan is now at working at Lewis Tein. Congrats to him on how he handled himself in this mess...

Names being floated for U.S. Attorney

According to the Miami Herald, there are 4 potential candidates:

▪[Roy] Altman, a lawyer with Podhurst Orseck, is a former federal prosecutor in Miami who obtained convictions in several major cases, including the trial of an international sex trafficker and the murder trial of a U.S. postal worker. He also served as deputy chief of the office’s special prosecutions section and played a lead role in its violence reduction partnerships in the communities of Overtown, Liberty City and Miami Gardens. A Yale Law School alumnus, Altman graduated from Columbia University and played on its football and baseball teams.
▪[John] Couriel prosecuted economic and major criminal cases at the U.S. attorney’s office before joining the law firm Kobre Kim, specializing in Latin America with a focus on allegations of foreign corruption violations, money laundering and tax evasion. He has also run twice unsuccessfully for the Florida Legislature. A native Spanish speaker, Couriel graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
▪ [Dan] Fridman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, prosecuted economic, financial and corruption cases before serving as senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States and as special counsel for healthcare fraud at the Department of Justice. Now a partner at White & Case, Fridman is a native speaker of Spanish and Portuguese who helps multinational companies operating in the U.S. and Latin America investigate allegations of fraud, kickbacks and bribery of government officials. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Harvard Law School.
▪ [Jon] Sale is co-chair of Broad and Cassel’s white-collar defense and compliance practice, representing corporations and individuals in grand jury investigations and complex criminal cases. He is also a member of the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission that reviews and recommends prospective judges to Florida’s two U.S. senators and the president. Sale previously served as the second-in-command of the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida, after prosecuting federal cases in New York and Connecticut. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School, Sale was also an assistant special prosecutor for the Justice Department in the Watergate case that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article122285379.html#storylink=cpy

"Help wanted"

Julie Kay details in today's DBR -- U.S. Attorney has sign out: Help Wanted -- that the U.S. Attorney's office is hiring due to the large number of vacanies. Those mentioned in the article as recently leaving: Marvelle McIntyre-Hall (retiring) , Gerald Greenberg (Stearns Weaver) , Aimee Jimenez (USAO in Washington), Lilly Ann Sanchez (Fowler White), Carlos Castillo (Seidman Prewitt), Jonathan Lopez (Justice Dept DC), and Dan Fridman (Justice Dept DC). The article also says that "The Justice Department has always used the Miami office of the U.S. Attorney's office as something of a farm team." Those working in DC with ties to Miami: Barry Sabin, Michael Mulaney, Paul Pelletier, Drew Osterbaan, Mary Butler, Ed Nucci, and now Fridman and Lopez.

How to catch the bad guys...

Laurie Stein interviews Dan Fridman (here's the video and the print version), who will be returning shortly to this District as an AUSA, about a new training seminar on how to catch internet pornographers:

"Project Safe Childhood", based in South Florida, is the he first conference of its kind. It brought local, state and federal agents together to track and catch online predators.

Another SDFLA connection here -- Stein is married to Mike Tein of Lewis and Tein.

News and notes

A couple of things:

1. Padilla's bond hearing is tomorrow at 10AM in front of J. Garber. I am going to try and attend if work permits.

2. Congrats to AUSA Daniel Fridman (from this District). He has accepted a special assignment to work with the Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Paul McNulty (the #2 guy at DOJ in DC) on shaping the administration's criminal and civil rights policy. Those that know Dan, know that he is a good and fair prosecutor and I hope he uses the time in DC to promote his even-tempered philosophy.

3. Way off topic -- for those interested in a high profile exciting murder case involving allegations that you wouldn't believe if you read about them in a book, check out http://www.probodybuildingweekly.com/ and click on the replay of the telecast in which I serve as a legal analyst (I come on at around the 12 minute mark, after the break). For all the information on the case, you can check out www.titusandryan.com or www.getbig.com.

News and notes

This may be the last post pending Katrina... All federal courthouses close today at 1PM, so until they reopen, check out these two interesting stories.

1. Fascinating article in the Business Review today about how e-mail is being used as a weapon against a corporate defendant in a contract dispute. John O'Sullivan and Jason Kellogg of Akerman Senterfitt are the lawyers for Quantum Communications and have dug up the e-mails that apparently sink defendant Ronald Hale. The case is in front of Judge Martinez. The DBR explained Judge Martinez's reaction when the defendant said he couldn't recall the e-mail: "Judge Martinez, a former prosecutor, did not buy that the dates of the negotiations slipped Hale’s memory. At the Aug. 3 hearing, he likened it to his days as a prosecutor, when he asked a witness if he was on an airplane that crashed in the Colombian jungle with 4,000 pounds of narcotics on it, and the witness said he could not remember. “That’s like telling me you’re asked have any of your children ever died a violent death, and you say, ‘I don’t really remember,’ ” Martinez said from the bench. Days later, Martinez granted the preliminary injunction for Qantum."

2. Eligio Perez, a former Customs Inspector at Miami International Airport, pled guilty yesterday before United States District Court Judge Federico Moreno in federal court in Miami to a criminal indictment charging him with disclosure of confidential government information, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1905. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Perez agreed to immediately resign from his federal employment and agreed not to seek any other federal or state law enforcement employment. Perez is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2, 2005. Case was prosecuted by Daniel Fridman.

3. Finally, the JNC is accepting applications for U.S. Attorney in this District. The deadline is October 3. Should I apply?