Four Former U.S. Attorneys File Amicus Brief Supporting Microsoft in “Gag Order” Lawsuit

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Lisa

Mike McKay

Four former U.S. Attorneys from the Western District of Washington have filed an amicus brief in support of Microsoft Corp.’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice regarding government searches of customer email. Microsoft’s complaint seeks to strike down a law that prevents the company, and others like it, from timely informing its customers when the government seeks their data.

The former U.S. Attorneys joining the brief are: Jeffrey Sullivan (who was USA from 2007 to 2009); NAFUSA member John McKay (2001 to 2007); Kate Pflaumer (1993 to 2001); and NAFUSA Foundation President Mike McKay (1989 to 1993). They were joined by Charles Mandigo, who was the FBI Special Agent in Charge in Seattle from 1999 to 2003.

In their brief, the former federal law enforcement officials observed they have “a combined 80 years of real-life experience fulfilling their obligation to keep the public safe while operating within the bounds of the Constitution. They have a unique perspective on how to achieve the balance between public safety and personal liberty, particularly with respect to government searches and seizures of private information.” They argued that “law enforcement can function effectively—even in the cloud—while following the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of notice to individuals whose private information has been searched.”

As reported by The Seattle Times, all of the former officials have experience seeking secrecy orders but are concerned about the increasing use of the orders.

John McKay

“Because of the nature of the cloud, the government has gotten lazy and is no longer making specific showings of need as to why secrecy orders should be granted,” John McKay told the Times

McKay is now in private practice at Davis Wright Tremaine, which is representing Microsoft in the case, but his involvement in the brief was in his personal capacity, he said.

NAFUSA Members on Both Sides of Pipeline Debate

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Lisa

Tim Purdon

NAFUSA member Tim Purdon will represent the Standing Rock Sioux tribal leaders who have been sued by Dakota Access LLC in federal court in Bismarck, North Dakota, for protesting the pipeline construction. As reported on August 29, NAFUSA member Bill Leone is representing Dakota Access in the related litigation in federal court in Washington, DC where the tribe is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Dakota Access is an intervenor.

The tribe is protesting the pipeline’s route passing through ancestral lands, threatening burial grounds, sacred sites and other historical significant areas. The Bismarck complaint alleges the tribal leaders tried to block Dakota Access from entering and exiting the construction site. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland granted a temporary restraining order against the tribal leaders and others. A hearing is set for September 8 to determine if a preliminary injunction should issue.

Purdon served as the U.S. Attorney for the North Dakota until last year when he resigned and is now a partner in the Bismarck office of Robbins Kaplan, where he is co-chair of the American Indian Law and Policy Group.

Leone Argues Against Sioux Tribe in Pipeline Row

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Lisa

Bill Leone

Law 360 reported on August 24, 2016 Sioux Tribe Says ‘Cultural Survival’ At Stake In Pipeline Row, that “the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe urged a D.C. federal judge to block construction on the $3.8 billion crude oil pipeline slated to run through what it considers the tribe’s ancestral lands, calling the Dakota Access Pipeline a threat to its ‘cultural survival’ that was not adequately reviewed by the federal government before its approval”.

The tribe urged U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to grant a preliminary injunction saying “it was important to hear from tribe members themselves about the importance of the various sites.”

Law 360 reported that the tribe argued that the pipeline’s route passes through ancestral lands, threatening burial grounds, sacred sites and other historically significant areas. The cultural surveys done for the project were done by out-of-state consultants and without the participation of the tribe, it said.

During the hearing, NAFUSA member William J. Leone of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, an attorney for intervenor defendant Dakota Access, insisted that those surveys were completed by “qualified archeologists” and subsequently shared with the tribes.
That the surveys were completely unsupervised is “simply not true,” Leone said.
Leone said it would be “horribly unfair” to the developers, laborers and their families to issue an injunction and “change the rules” at the last minute.

Margolis Family to Join Us in San Diego

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Lisa

Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post

David’s wife, Debby, and his daughter, Cheri, will attend the San Diego conference as honored guests of NAFUSA. David, who passed away on July 12, 2016, was scheduled to be a our luncheon speaker on his 51 years at Justice. Deborah Daniels shared a recent Margolis obituary from The Week.

As is our custom, an American flag was flown over Main Justice on August 19, 2016, as the request of NAFUSA. It will be presented to Debby and Cheri at the October conference. It represents the high regard in which David was held by his colleagues.

Jim Robinson Remembered

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Lisa

Former NAFUSA President Jim Robinson died six years ago on August 6, 2010. The DOJ Criminal Division remembered Jim in This Week in the Criminal Division Bulletin (August 22,2016).

SPOTLIGHT ON JAMES K. ROBINSON

James K. Robinson served as Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division from 1998 to 2001.

Mr. Robinson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1943. He graduated from Michigan State University and earned a law degree from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1968. Mr. Robinson then clerked for Judge George Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He subsequently became an associate at a Detroit law firm and later a partner at another, where he specialized in litigation.

In 1975, Mr. Robinson began service on the five-member committee of the National Conference of Bar Examiners that drafts the evidence questions for the Multistate Bar Exam. In 1977—at the age of 33—he was named United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, which had one of the heaviest caseloads in the nation at that time. In 1981, Mr. Robinson returned to his Detroit law firm, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz & Cohn. While in private practice, he chaired the committee that drafts the Michigan Rules of Evidence and he co-authored a three-volume treatise and a courtroom handbook on the rules of evidence.

Mr. Robinson was named Dean and Professor of Law at the Wayne State University Law School in 1993. That same year, Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed him to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

In August 1995, Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann Harris resigned her position in the Criminal Division. For almost three years, John C. Keeney served as Acting Assistant Attorney General until President Bill Clinton nominated Mr. Robinson in April 1998. Mr. Robinson faced a skeptical Senate Judiciary Committee at his nomination hearing. The Committee expressed dissatisfaction with the uneven prosecution of narcotics offenses, leaks of grand jury material, and potential prosecution of elected officials for purportedly political reasons. The Washington Post reported that Mr. Robinson “deflected the thunder by promising to apply the law even-handedly.” He was confirmed a few months later. As Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Robinson increased the Division’s focus on transnational crime and stationed attorneys at U.S. Embassies throughout the world. He also helped expand the Division’s resources for drug trafficking and computer crime.

Mr. Robinson left the Division in 2001 and became a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Washington, D.C. From 2001 to 2002, he was retained as a consultant by the United Nations Center for International Crime Prevention in Vienna to conduct a global study on the transfer of funds of illicit origin with respect to the negotiation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

On August 6, 2010, Mr. Robinson died at the age of 66 of cancer. He left behind two children, five grandchildren, and his widow, Marietta “Marti” Robinson, who is now a commissioner with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In a condolence letter to Mrs. Robinson, then-Attorney General Eric Holder wrote, “As Assistant Attorney General, Jim embodied the steady and steely resolve under pressure that we need and expect from our public servants. Every action that he took, and every decision that he made, reflected his singular desire to do justice and serve the people of this nation.”

[Photo: Grand Rapids Press]

Charlie Savage to Keynote San Diego Conference

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Lisa

Charlie Savage will attend his sixth NAFUSA conference in October- more than many NAFUSA members. He has truly become a “Friend of NAFUSA.” This year he will do double duty as our Saturday night keynote speaker and as the moderator of the Friday morning panel on national security v privacy. He is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington correspondent for the New York Times. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, Savage graduated from Harvard College and earned a master’s degree from Yale Law School as part of a Knight Foundation journalism fellowship. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Luiza Ch. Savage, the editorial director of events for Politico, and their children, William and Peter Savage.

Savage has been covering post-9/11 issues — including national security, individual rights and the rule of law — since 2003, when he was a reporter for the Miami Herald. Later that year, he joined the Washington bureau of the Boston Globe; he then moved to the Washington bureau of the New York Times in 2008. He has also co-taught a seminar on national security and the Constitution at Georgetown University’s political science department.

Savage’s first book, Takeover, published in 2007, chronicles the Bush-Cheney administration’s efforts to expand presidential power. His second book, Power Wars, published in 2015, is an investigative history of national-security legal policy issues in the Obama administration.

His other journalism honors include the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, and the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.

His keynote address is entitled: “Power Wars: Obama, Bush, and the Post-9/11 Presidency.”

Hartunian and McQuade to Lead AGAC

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Lisa

Richard Hartunian

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced today the appointment of U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian for the Northern District of New York as chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys (AGAC). Attorney General Lynch also appointed U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade for the Eastern District of Michigan to serve as vice chair. Both appointments are effective immediately.

“The Attorney General’s Advisory Committee plays an essential role in shaping the Justice Department’s policies, implementing its programs, and ensuring that equal justice and the rule of law are upheld throughout the United States,” said Attorney General Lynch. “As a former chair of the AGAC, I know firsthand the significant duties required of the committee’s leaders, and I am certain that U.S. Attorneys Richard Hartunian and Barbara McQuade are ready to assume the responsibility of chairing such an important and distinguished body. They are both seasoned prosecutors, exemplary law enforcement officers, and devoted public servants, and I look forward to benefitting from their long experience and wise counsel as we advance the department’s vital work in the months ahead. I congratulate them on their new posts, and I once again thank former U.S. Attorney John Walsh for his outstanding service as AGAC chair over the last 20 months.”

U.S. Attorney Hartunian has been the vice chair of the AGAC since January 2015. He was appointed to the AGAC in 2013 and has served as the co-chair of the Border and Immigration Subcommittee, as well as a member of the subcommittees focused on Native American issues, Health Care Fraud and Environmental Crimes. He has served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York since January of 2010. Before that, he had been an Assistant U.S. Attorney there since 1997 and the district’s Narcotics Chief and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Coordinator since 2006.

U.S. Attorney Hartunian is a 1983 cum laude graduate of Georgetown University and a 1986 graduate of the Albany Law School of Union University. He was engaged in the private practice of law in Albany from 1987 to 1990. He served as an Assistant District Attorney in Albany County from 1990 to 1997, where his work on narcotics and violent crime cases led to his designation as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1994.

In May of 2010, U.S. Attorney Hartunian was honored by the Armenian Bar Association as the first U.S. Attorney of Armenian descent.

Barbara McQuade

U.S. Attorney McQuade was appointed to the AGAC in April 2013 and has previously served as co-chair of the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. She also served on subcommittees addressing civil rights and border security. She became the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan when she took office in January of 2010. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit, Michigan, for 12 years, including service as Deputy Chief of the National Security Unit.

U.S. Attorney McQuade is a 1987 graduate of the University of Michigan and a 1991 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. Before becoming a federal prosecutor, she practiced law in a Detroit firm and served as a law clerk to a U.S. District Judge. From 2003 to 2009, U.S. Attorney McQuade was as an adjunct law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

While U.S. Attorney McQuade replaces U.S. Attorney Hartunian as vice chair, U.S. Attorney Hartunian replaces former U.S. Attorney John Walsh for the District of Colorado as chair.

The AGAC was created in 1973 to serve as the voice of the U.S. Attorneys and to advise the Attorney General on policy, management and operational issues impacting the offices of the U.S. Attorneys.

Michael Moore Joins NAFUSA

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Lisa

NAFUSA’s newest life member, Michael Moore, joined Pope McGlamry in its Atlanta office in December 2015. Moore’s practice focuses in the areas of qui tam/false claims litigation, significant fraud and tort cases, and white collar matters.

Moore was appointed by President Obama in 2010 to serve as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Moore targeted violent crimes, human trafficking, and public corruption. During his time as the chief federal prosecutor, he oversaw the prosecution of national food safety cases, resulting in record-setting prison sentences for corporate executives and the largest criminal fine ever imposed against a corporation for food safety violations. Mr. Moore took an active role in civil rights matters, overseeing numerous cases involving the brutal mistreatment of arrestees and prison inmates and personally mediated a landmark settlement guaranteeing adequate representation for children and individuals in the Superior Courts.

Moore is credited with growing the false claims practice in the Middle District of Georgia, increasing recoveries for the Government by over 8000 percent during his tenure. His efforts resulted in multi-million dollar settlements and made the Middle District of Georgia a leader in combatting health care fraud.

As United States Attorney, Moore served on the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee, the Health Care Fraud Working Group, the Criminal Practice Subcommittee, and the White Collar/Fraud Subcommittee, all part of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

Prior to his service with the Department of Justice, and following his time as a state prosecutor, Moore practiced privately, representing clients in both civil and criminal matters throughout the state.

Moore is a former member of the Georgia Senate, where he served on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Transportation, and Defense Committees.

NAFUSA Officers Meet with AG

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Lisa

Photo by Lonnie D. Tague/DOJ

On July 23, 2016, The NAFUSA officers met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in her conference room at Main Justice. The AG, who was an active member of NAFUSA in between her two appointments as U.S. Attorney for the ED of New York, is quite familiar with NAFUSA. She also chaired several meetings of the AGAC when they met with the NAFUSA Liaison Committee. In addition, she has attended NAFUSA conferences in her capacity as chair of the AGAC.

The meeting was the first opportunity to continue the tradition began by former AG Eric Holder to have a small group representing NAFUSA meet in an informal setting and discuss with the AG matters of mutual interest.

Shown in the photo below, left to right, Karen Hewitt, board member; Secretary Terry Flynn; President Greg Vega; Attorney General Loretta Lynch; Vice President Doug Jones; Executive Director Rich Rossman; Treasurer Paul Coggins; President Elect Bart Daniel.