Mike Lee Grills Judicial Nominee About 'Disturbing' Action

chair thank you Senator Senator Lee uh thank you Mr chairman thanks Mr Ritz for standing for this U nomination and for being here today now it's my understanding that you were subject to an ethics investigation by opr is that right never in my career never but you're aware of the situation in United States versus Von Rico Weber where you were accused of making these material representations to defendant attorney in order to elicit a guilty plead I have some recollection of that Senator but I was not subject to any sort of formal complaint or investigation okay now it's my understanding that the in this circumstance um this would have resulted in the defendant serving a 10-year prison sentence and the accusation is that you led the defendant to believe that a a low sentence a much lower sentence would um uh would be in order or perhaps even probation I just want to read to you the letter uh the the the email that we received uh from the concerned uh defense attorney uh Shining Light on the incident the the the person writing this email is recounting a conversation with the defense attorney that in which you are allegedly misled the defense attorney and the defendant um after the defense um attorney explains it here's how he explains it uh at this point I stopped the conversation and said was the a USA Kevin Ritz the answer was yes it is unfortunate that this is not the first second third or whatever occasion that this sort of thing has occurred but everyone should be aware of this unfortunate pattern of behavior you should be aware your clients should be aware and you should proceed with Extreme Caution it is a sad commentary um so this is a concerning allegation of course um now I assume that you um you would agree certainly that misleading a criminal defense Council a as to the nature of the charges against the defendant and the uh likely sentence that might result from a guilty plea that would that would violate a federal Prosecutor's ethical responsibilities yes and I did not do that in that case senator now my understanding is that a complaint was made against you with the Department of Justice Office of professional respon possibility and that an investigation ensued uh at what point did you become aware of that investigation again Senator to my knowledge there was never an opr investigation or a complaint for that matter okay so you're you're not aware of of anything like that that's that's correct it did does the uh does the information you just heard the accusation does that reflect your pattern of behavior as a prosecutor absolutely not and I recall this and I recall that the person who had sent that email communication certainly had not communicated with me I'm not actually sure we had ever had cases together in the first place in any event um I took action and I believe I communicated with everyone who received that because in our federal district it's really important for a usas and defense attorneys to be able to trust each other and I took my reputation very seriously okay but but you would agree that if you had done those things that had resulted in a complaint to opr and you didn't disclose it either of those things would be a problem if if I had acted unethically absolutely but I did not now as you know one of the most important decisions a US attorney can make is um the decision about whom to hire as a first assistant us attorney would you agree with that uh yes it's a pretty important thing it's why I find it disturbing that you chose to hire Miss Reagan Taylor Fondren to serve as your first assistant despite the two disciplinary investigations she was under for uh for for serious uh a u accusations relating to ethics violations there's a former Federal prosecutor myself I know the fairness of the justice system depends a lot on among other things um uh how uh prosecutors handle things like exculpatory evidence and withholding exculpatory evidence uh from defense is a is a is a big problem ever since Brady versus Maryland was decided in 1963 every prosecutor knows that there is an obligation to disclose these things now when you chose uh Miss Taylor fond to be your first assistant were you aware the two ongoing investigations of her um alleged prosecutorial Mis misconduct related to failure to disclose exculpatory evidence I may have been aware of ongoing proceedings my recollection senator they were not they were still proceeding and I honestly can't remember if they still are today so they were at the time you chose her were you not concerned about that Senator I was uh I I was I am not sure I knew the particulars of the situation yeah in fact she began Your Service as a first assistant before her court ordered suspension from legal practice was enforced is that right I I believe that's correct Senator I'm not actually entirely sure now a man served four additional years in prison because of the misconduct of your first assistant now thankfully the court of appeals um corrected her error uh but not for the full four years and so was it in spite of or because of Miss Taylor fondren's willingness to violate the the defendant's constitutional rights that you chose her to be your first assistant Senator um as I said before uh I believe that uh Miss Fondren and all of our a usas are doing an excellent job keeping people safe in in West Tennessee these allegations in this incident occurred I want to make clear uh before Miss fondin was part of our office several years ago but you were aware of the accusations I was aware in a very vague sense thank you Senator Lee at this point I'd like to put in the record a letter from Van Turner are you familiar with him

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Length: 6min 21sec (381 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024