Convertino Gets His Source
On Wednesday, TPMM reported that the team under investigation for botching the Stevens prosecution has itself investigated a DOJ lawyer.
As we’ve reported, six federal prosecutors from the Stevens case — members of DOJ’s Public Integrity unit, including its head, William Welch — are now being investigated for knowingly withholding evidence, a potential criminal act.
Prosecutions for this offense — known as a Brady violation — are exceedingly rare. But it turns out that in 2006, an Assistant US Attorney was tried on the charge — and acquitted amid allegations that his prosecution was over-zealous.
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The ironies here begin to mount:
First, Convertino was being tried for an overly aggressive approach to prosecution. But his trial raised questions as to whether the Public Integrity unit was itself overly aggressive in going after him. One former federal prosecutor told the Detroit News after Convertino was acquitted: "The claim was overzealousness by Convertino, but was the government itself overzealous in prosecuting Convertino?"
Then, of course, it’s surprising, to say the least, that having tried this high-profile case focused on a prosecutor withholding evidence, the Public Integrity unit would allow itself to be accused of the very same crime in prosecuting another case. Especially given that Welch, who took over the unit in 2006, was involved in both efforts.
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There’s also this. Convertino’s lawyers argued that he was overworked and given inadequate resources during the terrorism prosecution. That line echoes this paragraph from a recent New York Times story on the Stevens Six:
One specific issue is whether the department was at fault for failing to pick up on the struggles of a trial team of five principal lawyers that may have been overwhelmed, struggling in the face of tight deadlines and an aggressive defense team from Williams & Connolly, a law firm known for its combativeness, according to current and former Justice Department officials.
As it happens, Convertino was back in the news this week. You see, he’s suing DOJ for privacy violations going back before the PIN investigation case against him. He alleges that DOJ leaked both news of an Office of Public Responsibility investigation into him and the identity of a confidential informant to the Detroit Free Press as part of a campaign of retaliation against him for perceived cooperation with Senate inquiries into DOJ mismanagement of financial investigations. A judge has ordered the reporter in that story to answer questions about who leaked that information to him. And on Thursday, the Appeals Court refused the Free Press’ attempt to halt the reporter’s deposition.