Legal News

Renzi Probe Could Shed Light on U.S. Attorney Firings

By Dan Slater

Friday’s 35-count corruption indictment of Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi could presage a mess of problems for Republicans in Congress. For one thing, it turns up the heat on the criminal investigations of two of Congress’s longest-serving members — Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young — both Alaska Republicans. Second, the fact that Renzi is the Arizona co-chairman of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, a position from which Renzi is expected to resign, adds to questions, raised in some quarters, about McCain’s ties to special-interests.

Alas, however, politics is not the Law Blog’s bag. We’re all about lawyers. So as we follow L’Affaire Renzi we’ll be looking for a return to the long-forgotten U.S. Attorney flap.

First, let’s catch up on where things stand with Renzi. Back in April, the WSJ reported the FBI’s investigation into Renzi for alleged kickbacks. In the indictment, which was unsealed on Friday, it’s alleged that Renzi pressured executives from Resolution Copper Co. to buy a 480-acre alfalfa field near Sierra Vista, Ariz., owned by one of Renzi’s business partners, in exchange for supporting Resolution’s request to do a land swap with the federal government. (Click here for Saturday’s reports from the WSJ
and NYT. Click here for commentary from the White Collar Crime Prof blog.)

In a statement, Renzi’s attorney, Steptoe & Jonston’s Reid Weingarten, of Bernie Ebbers fame, said, “Congressman Renzi did nothing wrong. We will fight these charges until he is vindicated and his family name is restored.” Weingarten also said prosecutors may have rushed the indictment for political reasons.

Whether that’s true or not, it’s an interesting bit of irony. After all, many believe that the investigation into Renzi was originally pushed back for political reasons. And that’s where the U.S. Attorney flap figures in Renzi’s case: Leading up to Renzi’s re-election in the fall of 2006, the local U.S. attorney in Phoenix, Paul Charlton, was investigating Renzi for corruption, an investigation that met with resistance from the then-Gonzales led DOJ. In the midst of the inquiry, the DOJ fired Charlton, one of the eight U.S. attorneys fired in 2006, and pushed the investigation into Renzi back, thereby smoothing his path to re election.

According to reports, when the investigation was taken up again last April, Renzi’s top aide admitted that, as Renzi was being investigated initially by Charlton, the aide had called Charlton’s office asking for information, and that Charlton’s office refused to comment. Weeks later, Charlton was fired. The question of whether that sacking had anything to do with protecting Renzi’s political career could come out in the investigation.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 25, 2008 (boomark / email).