Court revives ex-prosecutor’s suit against DOJ
WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) – A former federal prosecutor who says he was punished for whistle-blowing can continue a Privacy Act claim against the U.S. Department of Justice, an appeals court ruled Friday.
Reversing a decision by a District of Columbia district court, a three-judge panel for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit by Richard Convertino, a former DOJ prosecutor who sued the agency in 2004 after a newspaper article about him cited anonymous DOJ sources.
Appeals judges Judith Ann Wilson Rogers, David Tatel and Karen Henderson said that the Washington district court’s grant of summary judgment against Convertino was premature because he didn’t have a full opportunity to conduct discovery.
The case dates to June 2003, when Convertino successfully prosecuted three people under a law that bans supporting terrorists. In the fall of that year, the DOJ removed Convertino from the case for allegedly withholding evidence, and the convictions were vacated.
A January 2004 article about the episode in the Detroit Free Press cited anonymous DOJ sources saying that Convertino was being investigated for ethics violations.
Soon after, Convertino filed suit in Washington’s district court, arguing that the leak broke a privacy law. In the lawsuit, Convertino said his superiors were retaliating against him for earlier whistleblowing about the George W Bush administration’s handling of terrorism prosecutions.
Convertino resigned from the U.S. Justice Department in 2005.
To buttress his case in District of Columbia district court, Convertino asked Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter for information on his sources. Ashenfelter invoked the Fifth Amendment in protecting the identify of his source, and Convertino asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to compel the newspaper to share any information it had. While Convertino’s motion was still pending in Michigan, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia threw out the lawsuit.
On Friday the appeals court overturned the decision to throw out the suit. Convertino’s attorney said he expects to have answers from the newspaper in the next six months.
“We’re going to continue to try to find out which government official violated the law,” said lead council Stephen Kohn. “We’ll be pursuing the subpoenas that are still pending in Detroit.”
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is Richard Convertino v. United States Department of Justice and Jonathan Tukel, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 11-5133.
For Convertino: Stephen Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto.
For DOJ: Samantha Chaifetz.
(Reporting by Drew Singer)
