CREW SENDS LETTER TO DOJ – URGING INVESTIGATION INTO DEMOTION OF PROSECUTOR ON ABRAMOFF GUAM SCANDAL

8 Aug 2005 // Washington, DC – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit ethics watchdog group, sent a letter today to Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Glenn Fine asking for an investigation into the demotion of former Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Frederick A. Black. CREW sent copies of the letter to Senators McCain, Specter and Leahy and to Congressmen Sensenbrenner and Conyers.

According to a story in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, Mr. Black had been supervising a grand jury investigation into lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s secret arrangement with Guam Superior Court officials to lobby against a court revision bill then pending in the U.S. Congress. In 2002, Mr. Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court and paid with a series of $9,000 checks apparently funneled through a Laguna Beach lawyer to conceal the arrangement. These payments were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued November 18, 2002, which required the administrative director of the Guam Superior Court to release records involving the lobbying contracts.

The day after the subpoena was issued, Mr. Black who had launched the prosecution, was demoted despite holding the post of Acting U.S. Attorney for more than a decade. After the issuance of the subpoena and Black’s subsequent demotion, the federal grand jury took no further action in the Abramoff investigation.

“The demotion of Acting Attorney General Black looks political and should be investigated,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “The fact that Mr. Black’s demotion apparently resulted in the termination of a serious public corruption investigation into a friend of the White House, makes the situation all the more egregious. This Administration needs to be held accountable for its actions. An investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General would be a good first step.”

At the time of Mr. Black’s demotion, he was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the administration of then Governor of Guam Carl Gutierrez. Mr. Black was responsible for the indictment of some of the governor’s top aides and political associates. Supporters of Governor Gutierrez lobbied for Black’s demotion and he was replaced by the Bush Administration with Leonardo Rapadas, a cousin of one of the targets of Black’s public corruption case. Soon after taking office, Rapadas recused himself from the case.

Earlier this year – over two years after Mr. Black attempted to initiate an investigation – Guam Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks commenced a separate investigation into Mr. Abramoff’s secret lobbying on behalf of the Guam courts. Ms. Brooks’ office is reviewing 36 payments of $9,000, totaling $324,000 made to Mr. Abramoff and paid through a middleman, California lawyer Howard Hills.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit, progressive legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. CREW drafted the complaint against Rep. Tom DeLay, filed by former Congressman Chris Bell, for which DeLay was admonished last year.

For more information, and a copy of the letter, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman at 202.588.5565/press@citizensforethics.org.