CREW FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST FORMER SENATE STAFFER MANUEL MIRANDA

12 Feb 2004 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, filed an ethics complaint against Manuel Miranda, former staff member to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, with the New York Bar. CREW's complaint alleges that Mr. Miranda, a member of the New York Bar, violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by surreptitiously examining materials on the computers of democratic staff attorneys on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

New York Bar Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4) prohibits an attorney from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. In 2001, the Bar's Committee on Professional Ethics issued an opinion stating that using technology to surreptitiously examine and trace electronic documents is a violation of that rule.

The Committee on Professional ethics cited to a formal opinion issued by the American Bar Association which provides that when a lawyer comes into possession of material that appears to be confidential, under circumstances where it is clear that the materials were not intended for that lawyer's eyes, it is incumbent upon the receiving lawyer to stop examining the materials, to notify the lawyer who sent the materials, and to abide by the sending lawyer's instructions as to the disposition of the documents.

The complaint notes that Mr. Miranda may have violated at least two federal criminal laws, one prohibiting fraudulent use of government computers and another prohibiting the theft and conversion of government documents.