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It has been widely reported that President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey to replace Robert S. Mueller III as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Comey served as the Deputy Attorney General in the Administration of George W. Bush (2003-2005). He also served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (2002-2003). If nominated and confirmed, Comey will replace Bob Mueller whose term ends in September, 2013. Mueller is also a former United States Attorney.

On April 3, 2013, we asked the Department of Justice to assess the impact of sequestration on the U.S. Attorney community. A DOJ spokesperson replied:

Notice of proposed furloughs have gone to nearly all DOJ employees (approximately 115,000). The House Democrats posted a version here: http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/US_Attorney_Furlough_Notice.pdf

 

With the sequester underway, the Department will need to absorb a $1.6 billion cut, which is effectively a 9% cut in the remaining months of the fiscal year.  The sequestration, as it currently stands, would cut approximately $100 million from the current budget for the entire U.S. Attorney Community, affecting every District and reducing the number of cases they can prosecute. The Justice Department anticipates U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will handle 1,600 fewer civil cases and 1,000 fewer criminal cases. Fewer affirmative civil and criminal cases will affect our ability to ensure that justice is served and impact funds owed to the government.

Department of Justice components are expected to carefully consider how to prioritize available resources to minimize the impact of sequestration on the Department’s ability to carry out essential functions. Employees have been provided a notice of possible furlough, which is required at least 30 days, or in some cases 60 days, before any furloughs are implemented. If a furlough decision is certain, the employee will receive the required decision notice. Managers will follow up with each affected employee on specific scheduling details.

The Department is still finalizing sequestration plans and will reassess impacts when final funding levels become available.

 

On April 24, 2013, the Attorney General announced that the Department will not need to fulough employees this fiscal year after all, thanks to some moves from Congress and cost-cutting measures. But Holder warned that “few of the extraordinary actions” the agency is now takikng to avoid furloughs will be available next year, making furloughs “a distinct possibility at the beginning of next fiscal year if sequestration levels continue.”

The Department of Justice announced today that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer would step down on March 1, 2013. Breuer was confirmed by the Senate on April 20, 2009, making him the longest serving AAG of the Criminal Division in modern times. Breuer participated on a panel on internal investigations at NAFUSA’s Atlanta conference in 2012. Click here to read the statement released by the Department.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today the appointment of Loretta E. Lynch, shown above, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys (AGAC). Attorney General Holder also appointed Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, to serve as vice chair. Both appointments became effective Jan. 1, 2013.

Lynch was appointed to the AGAC in May 2010 and has served as vice chair since 2011. She replaces Paul J. Fishman, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Lynch has also served as the chair for the Advisory Committee’s Office, Management and Budget Subcommittee.

Yates, shown above, was appointed to the AGAC in May 2010 and has served on several subcommittees including Civil Rights, White Collar Fraud, and Criminal Practice and Law Enforcement Coordination/Victim/Community Issues

Jim Letten, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, announced on Thursday that he would be resigning, effective December 18, 2012. Letten, the longest-serving U.S. Attorney in the nation, was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and reappointed by President Barack Obama. Letten has earned a reputation for a strong record in combatting public corruption, including the successful prosecution of former Gov. Edwin Edwards on bribery and racketeeing charges.

Letten’s office has unfortunately been the focus of a recent allegations of inappropriate comments about active criminal cases under aliases at nola.com, the web site of The Times-Picayune newspaper. These allegations have led to the resignation of one of Letten’s top assistants and the demotion of his first assistant. The Department of Justice named a federal prosecutor from Georgia to take over the investigation into the office’s internal problems.

Click here for detailed coverage by The Times-Picayune.

Gary Grindler, Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff, announced that he is leaving the Department of Justice on December 5, 2012. He has served as the chief of staff to the attorney general since January 2011. He was named acting deputy attorney general in 2010 after the departure of David Ogden. He previously served in a number of positions at DOJ, including as a deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division.

Grindler will be replaced by Margaret Richardson, currently the deputy chief of staff. Richardson joined DOJ in early 2009. She previously directed the Clean Slate Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, Calif. She has been a counselor to the attorney general since January 2009.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today released A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The 120-page Guide provides a detailed analysis of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and closely examines the DOJ and SEC’s approach to FCPA enforcement.

The Justice Department, in announcing the release, said,

The Guide provides helpful information to enterprises of all sizes – from small businesses doing their first transactions abroad to multi-national corporations with subsidiaries around the world.  The Guide addresses a wide variety of topics, including who and what is covered by the FCPA’s anti-bribery and accounting provisions; the definition of a “foreign official”; what constitute proper and improper gifts, travel and entertainment expenses; facilitating payments; how successor liability applies in the mergers and acquisitions context; the hallmarks of an effective corporate compliance program; and the different types of civil and criminal resolutions available in the FCPA context.  On these and other topics, the Guide takes a multi-faceted approach toward setting forth the statute’s requirements and providing insights into DOJ and SEC’s enforcement practices.  It uses hypotheticals, examples of enforcement actions and matters DOJ and SEC have declined to pursue, and summaries of applicable case law and DOJ opinion releases.

The Guide is available to the public free of charge online at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa and at www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa.shtml.

In the aftermath of the Senator Ted Stevens trial, two assistant U.S. attorneys from the Alaska U.S. Attorney Office, Joseph W. Bottini (represented by NAFUSA board member Ken Wainstein) and James A. Goeke were handed 40-day and 15-day suspensions, respectively,  by the Department of Justice.

On October 16, 2012, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA) filed a amicus brief before the Merit Systems Protection Board urging that the suspensions be reversed.

NAAUSA is a national association representing the interests of the 5,600 AUSAs employed by the Department of Justice. In its press release accompanying the filing of the amicus brief, it stated:

While acknowledging that unwillful mistakes had occurred in the government’s performance of its discovery responsibilities, NAAUSA asserted that the Justice Department, in taking disciplinary action upon Bottini and Goeke, had “failed to appropriately acknowledge the collective responsibility of the entire trial team and the exceptional circumstances that led to the prosecution’s discovery-related errors.”