Lawyer says concern for safety of his clients motivated his leak of confidential documents
A New York lawyer says he made an error in judgment when he leaked confidential documents in a suit contesting U.S. policies concerning the family detention of immigrants who enter the country unlawfully.
But the lawyer, Bryan Johnson, says he was motivated by “fear for his clients’ safety and compassion for their plight.” Johnson defended his actions in response to an order to show cause why he should not be held in contempt for leaking the documents to the McClatchy news service. McClatchy has a story on his response (PDF).
Johnson was acting as an unpaid consultant to immigration lawyers negotiating a settlement on behalf of detained mothers and children when he leaked a tentative court ruling by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee and a proposed settlement. The draft ruling said the Obama administration had violated part of a 1997 settlement through its increased use of family detention.
Johnson told Gee in court documents that he volunteered as a consultant because he wanted to enforce the 1997 settlement agreement. In his own practice, Johnson said, he represented numerous immigrant children and their families whose treatment was not in compliance with the settlement. Delays in settlement negotiations, coupled with concern for his clients, led to the “rash decision” to disclose the confidential documents, Johnson said.
Johnson said his immigration clients included a woman who was separated from her 4-year-old son and placed in a straitjacket in isolation after she attempted suicide. The woman and her son were placed on a plane to the Honduras, though Johnson believed the woman was entitled to asylum and her son should have been treated as an unaccompanied minor.
“Perhaps it was my own naivete or unrealistic optimism that led me to believe that a resolution would be quick in coming,” Johnson wrote in a declaration filed with the court. “But as the time wore on, as negotiations deadlines were continued, it seemed to me that the government was intentionally delaying any resolution in order to avoid compliance with the stipulated judgment. My frustration grew as the delays continued because each day’s delay meant harm to the children who were kept in detention.”
Several colleagues are supporting Johnson in court papers. They say Johnson, a 30-year-old lawyer who was admitted to the bar in 2011, is sometimes overzealous in advocacy for his clients, but holding him in contempt would hurt his career and the immigrants he represents for free or at little cost.
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