Main: U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose speaks in a video about why she went to law school (Roger Williams University/YouTube). Right inset: In this Oct. 18, 2011, file photo, then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia looks into the balcony before addressing the Chicago-Kent College Law justice in Chicago (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File).
In an exercise of authority under its own rules to initiate disciplinary matters, a federal court in Rhode Island has tasked a law professor and ethics expert with investigating a DOJ lawyer”s “lack of candor.”
Law&Crime has had many occasions to note that “lack of candor” is a legalistic way of calling someone a liar, and here we have a circumstance where the attorney has admitted to hiding information but blamed his client for his actions.
Late last week, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Joe Biden appointee, demanded answers from Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan about why she was never told that Bryan Rafael Gomez faced a homicide warrant in the Dominican Republic before she granted his habeas corpus petition. Bolan explained that his client, ICE — which is within DHS — had instructed him not to “disclose that information.”
He said in a court filing that he “relied on ICE’s representation that I was not permitted to disclose that information and understood that a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure.”
But there were two glaring problems. First, ICE had already announced the specifics of Gomez’s warrant in an April 16 press release touting “arrests [of] 5 foreign fugitives wanted for murder.” Second, DHS posted a press release on April 30 — a post that is still active and in its original form to this day — calling DuBose an “Activist Biden Judge” who released a “Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder.”
When DuBose questioned Bolan about the DHS post during a hearing, he insisted that he had reached out to everyone and anyone who would be in a position to get the press release taken down, but that nothing had come of it.
“It has to be fully investigated, so we don’t have anything like this happen again,” DuBose said.
Bolan again offered an apology for the “consequences” of his “lack of disclosure,” but the judge followed through on her threat to refer the attorney for potential discipline.
On Thursday, Chief Judge John McConnell, a Barack Obama appointee, issued an order transforming the referral into a probe of “possible misconduct.”
Finding it “appropriate” to appoint a special counsel, McConnell selected Roger Williams University School of Law Professor Niki Kuckes, a noted legal ethics expert and former clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, to “investigate the factual allegations to the extent deemed necessary, and provide a written report to the court” with recommendations “regarding further proceedings, if warranted.”
“Special counsel shall be provided with the case filings and records of any hearings regarding the allegations of attorney misconduct referenced in the referral and may take such additional steps as deemed reasonably necessary to ascertain the relevant facts,” the order said. “Special counsel is authorized to request documents, conduct interviews, and otherwise carry out the responsibilities of this appointment consistent with applicable law and the Local Rules of this Court.”
DuBose, as it happens, is an RWU Law alum.
One avenue of investigation could be the mismatch between an apologetic DOJ and a DHS that has not taken down or corrected a press release that falsely accused the judge of ignoring information she did not have.
DuBose has since ordered Gomez to be detained again, but ICE hasn’t found him yet.
