Legal News

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been exchanging letters with Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey's office, as she raises questions about the sudden closure of the public corruption unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles in March, the L.A. Times reported (here).

In March, Feinstein called on Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey to provide the Justice Department's rational for axing the high-profile unit. Mukasey responded that it enabled more lawyers to take on public corruption cases.

Feinstein also asked for information on any possible role the DOJ and White House had in the decision, whether lawyers in the unit had any input in the decision making process and how pending public corruption cases would be handled.

A Mukasey spokesperson told the Times that a response to to those questions was mailed yesterday.

The letter says that Los Angeles U.S. Atty. Thomas O'Brien made the decision to dismantle the group after talking to senior staff in L.A., and that nobody was consulted in Justice Department, the White House, or in the disbanded unit.