'I've Never Seen It Quite Like This': Josh Hawley Stunned By Biden Judicial Nom's 'Bizarre' Record

quite confused about this ethics issue or issues so maybe you can just help me sort it out so I don't think I maybe understand the facts here so you said that you've never been subject to an ethics complaint before is that right I said I I to my knowledge never been subject to an opr complaint or any sort of formal complaint okay I'm looking at a letter from May 16th 2010 to the office of professional responsibility that reads this letter is a formal request that your office investigate matters pertaining to the fair dealing and more important honesty of assistance United States Attorney Kevin Ritz if that letter exists Senator I was unaware of it until just now but you're aware of the issues surrounding the Von R Weber case which is the subject of this letter asking for a formal investigation into you you're aware of that as I said I do have some recollection of that matter oh okay so you were subject to a complaint I have the letter right here um let's just try to figure out what's going on in this in in this this case I mean this was a case involving a a public defender who you got a plea agreement with and then she asked to withdraw as councel because she said you misrepresented the situation to her and the court granted her motion to withdraw as Council um that's pretty unusual isn't it I mean what what what's happening here she said that you told her that she relied on information about the nature of the crime time which was she was told was going to be a marijuana trafficking offense and then when she got the PSR it had a base offense level of 34 because the underlying offense was cocaine trafficking so she had advised her client based on your representations here's what you're going to be likely subject to they accepted the plea deal she looks at the PSR and it's something very different she says than what you told her this a public defender now and so on that basis she had to withdraw his counsel and the court granted her request that's very unusual I mean what what what happened here Senator first of all I believe it was not a public defender was a defense attorney on the cja panel in West Tennessee um the there was a written plea agreement that was entered into that written plea agreement as with all of our plea agreements includes a provision that says these are all of the promises made to this defendant by the government yeah but the neither the indictment nor the change of plea transcript nor that agreement says anything about the underlying crime it just says funds were the proceeds of Distributing Controlled Substances without any specification of the alleged illegal narcotics so what she says is you sandbagged her basically and that's not true I made no such promise along those lines but was there any indication before you before the PSR that you were going to hit this guy with a cocaine I mean this is unusual it is it's unusual to have to be a Democrat Administration nominate somebody who is accused of who's hated by federal public defenders and who's accused of sandbagging indigent defendants so I'm I'm just this I'm baffled by this I'm truly like I am totally baffled by this so I'm trying to figure out what in the world happened and then you got taken off this case I think right uh my recollection Senator is that uh the office had someone else handle it in case I needed to be a witness at a proceeding well here's what Vivian Donaldson who is the council who ended up representing the United States at at Miss Chastain's motion withdraw as Council here's what she said these allegations about you are serious that's one of the reasons I am here meaning in court and Mr Ritz will more than likely be taken off this case because of these particular allegations so did that happen and I again I believe it was in case I needed to be a witness but this is this is what your supervisor said in open court I'm not quoting you now a private letter I'm quoting you something from open court she says you were removed from the case because of the allegations which she says were very serious now you've represented this committee you knew nothing about all of this you answered a question in the committee questionnaire that you had you weren't aware of any complaint you weren't aware of any disciplinary committee you weren't aware of any inquiry ever ever but yet I'm reading you a transcript from open court in which your supervising attorney says the allegations against you are very serious and you're going to be removed so I have to tell you I don't think it's I'm trying to figure out what in the world is going on here because it doesn't sound to me like you've been very forthcoming certainly to this committee so what happened were you removed because of the allegations of proper behavior uh the allegations were false first of all I'm not asking you about your V your view I'm asking you about what you told the court and what about what your supervising attorney told the court and I don't recall exactly why there may have been a change in councel my Mr R don't you think you'd want to I mean don't you think that's kind of important information these these allegations were false and there was never a clear memory of that but you don't have a clear memory of what happened in open court and you being potentially removed by your supervising attor this is this is very bizarre I have to say I've never seen it quite like this this is very very strange and I just noticed that we have a sudden instance of Amnesia anytime it we're dealing with the actual ethical complaint but you seem to remember the case exceptionally well so I just I this is this troubles me and it's it's it's strange it's very very strange maybe my Democrat colleagues can clear this up I'm sure they' vetted you um I I just this is this is very very odd so your testimony is you weren't moved all of this was false you were never investigated and this just what this this all went away or what happen there was certainly no court finding or any other finding by an investigative body of any unth unethical Behavior I thought the court allowed this defendant to change his guilty plea he' pled guilty and then the court allowed him to withdraw it that's also very unusual I it it does happen from time to time Senator on the basis of your misrepresentations that was that was not the finding of the court that thank you Mr Senator White House welcome to the committee Mr Ritz thank you senator

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Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024