DOJ Letter Criticizes Alston & Bird Lawyer for TMI in Maricopa Matter
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., may have been trying to save face when he announced in a news conference last Thursday that he was dropping a controversial lawsuit against county officials because the Justice Department was looking into the case.
Now that assertion appears to have blown up in the face of the lawyer who represented Arpaio, Robert Driscoll of Alston & Bird, a former Justice Department official in the administration of President George W. Bush.
A letter (PDF) from Raymond Hulser, the acting chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, informed Driscoll that the referral should not have been relied on as a platform for a press conference or cited in a federal court pleading, according to the Arizona Republic and Main Justice.
What’s more, the letter said, Driscoll provided too much information when he turned over thousands of pages of documents to the Justice Department. The letter criticized Driscoll for turning over “virtually the entire file” rather than a written summary of criminal allegations by Arpaio.
The dropped lawsuit, which had named judges and lawyers as defendants, had alleged corruption in connection with the construction of a court office tower.
The dismissal motion in the case said Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas had received assurances that the Public Integrity Section would investigate the matter, according to the Arizona Republic, but Hulser disagreed with that characterization.
“As I am sure you know, the Department of Justice receives information every day about alleged violations of federal law in many forms from a wide variety of sources, including prison inmates, citizens, attorneys, and organizations,” the letter said. “We do not refuse such information when offered, but our receipt of such information does not indicate that we have initiated an investigation or that we have agreed to take any action.”
Driscoll declined to comment on the letter when Main Justice contacted him.
