One wonders where the late Gov. Earl Long would have placed online communications in his descending order of how not to send a message. He once sagely advised, “Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk,” and so on down to “Don’t nod anything you can wink.”
My guess is that email and anonymous comments on newspaper websites would go straight to the top of Uncle Earl’s list, once he figured out what the hell one was talking about. Had David Petraeus, for instance, declared his affection for his paramour via the postal service instead of by email, he might still be running the Central Intelligence Agency instead of spending more time with his family.
Then there is U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, who has used wiretaps to send loose-lipped pols to prison but now finds his own career imperiled by the injudicious comments his top assistants posted on the Internet. Under the cloak of pseudonyms, they disparaged defendants, targets of investigations, judges, police officers, even colleagues in the New Orleans-based Eastern District office.
Those communications at first seemed to be harmless cyber chatter when Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sal Perricone and Jan Mann were unmasked in defamation lawsuits brought against them by Fred Heebe, whose River Birch landfill is under federal investigation. But the matter quickly grew more serious when Perricone resigned, Mann was demoted, the U.S. Justice Department yanked the landfill case from the local office, and a federal judge called for an independent counsel to investigate possible criminal prosecutorial misconduct. Now the deepening scandal could lead to the replacement of Letten himself, who, having secured the convictions of former Gov. Edwin Edwards and a platoon of thieving politicians, is Louisiana’s most famous crime fighter since former State Police Superintendent Francis Grevemberg busted up the slot machines in the early ’50s, in between Earl Long’s terms as governor.
The fate of Letten, first appointed by former President George W. Bush, may have been sealed by the re-election of President Barack Obama. This president only re-appointed Letten in 2009 on the strong recommendation of Sen. Mary Landrieu, who, had she not backed the top prosecutor, would have been roasted by Republican officials—Sen. David Vitter foremost among them—and many Democrats, too, given Letten’s popularity statewide.
Now Vitter has stated he is “troubled” by Letten’s handling of the situation. Also, recently, the district office received a stinging rebuke from U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who is concerned that online comments attributed to the assistant U.S. attorneys about the Danziger Bridge investigation could cause a re-trial of New Orleans police officers convicted of killing and wounding unarmed civilians days after Hurricane Katrina.
Vitter, as a congressman, pushed hard for his friend Engelhardt’s appointment to the federal bench. Taken together, their critical words leave other Republicans with nothing much to say in Letten’s defense.
Still, the U.S. attorney denies knowing about his assistants’ online musings, and Judge Engelhardt is inclined to believe him. A former colleague says Letten “wants to think the best of people.” Some inmates sitting in federal prisons would disagree. That he did not know or suspect that those closest to him were betraying his trust indicates he can be selective in suspecting wrongdoing.
Even if the cyber boasting and venting of government lawyers had no effect on criminal investigations, consider the principle. How much more force do federal prosecutors need on top of subpoena power and nearly unlimited resources they use to grind down their targets and pressure them into testifying against others, in exchange for less prison time? Add to that the impunity felt by top assistants to use inside knowledge to trash the reputations of those who cross them and you have the definition of going too far. Power corrupts even corruption fighters. There is a reason why U.S. attorneys are not appointed for life.
Not re-appointing Letten is the easy part. Replacing him is where it gets tricky. Already circulating is a short list of names for Sen. Landrieu to consider before making a recommendation to the White House. The wisest course for her is to eschew patronage politics and to put forward someone with strong criminal justice experience and the vigilance and diligence to win public trust. That may not happen quickly. But, for as hard an act as Letten is to follow, no one is irreplaceable.
