Names of Public Officials Including Former
City Attorney Mike Feuer Will Not Be Redacted, Nor Will
Statements by an FBI Agent that Feuer
Lied to the Grand Jury
LOS
ANGELES, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- This
morning a federal judge issued a final order on an application to
unseal 33 search FBI warrants and related documents that detail
federal prosecutors' investigation into unethical and illegal
activity at the Los Angeles City
Attorney's Office and the Department of Water and Power
("DWP").
Download the Final Order issued this morning here.
The government's investigation came in the wake of
the DWP's botched launch of a new billing system in 2013 that
cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a result of the government's investigation, which ended in
November 2023, one City Attorney
official, a former Special Counsel, and two DWP officials pled
guilty to bribery and extortion charges. However, significant
questions remain about the roles other key officials played in the
City's misconduct, including former City Attorney Mike Feuer.
The FBI warrant materials were sought in a legal action by
Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles
Times.
As Federal Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. noted in his Final
Order:
"Public confidence in government—which lies at the core of a
well functioning democracy—is shaken, if not shattered, when public
officials and those operating on their behalf engage in criminal or
unethical conduct. The nature and scope of misconduct in this case,
resulting in convictions of high-level public officials at two
municipal agencies, raise serious questions about a culture of
corruption. These questions warrant public scrutiny to determine
the extent to which wrongdoers have been held accountable and the
extent to which the affected agencies have been reformed. The need
for scrutiny is only heightened where the corruption threatens the
integrity of the judicial system and the safety of this nation's
infrastructure. Without disclosure of the identities of the public
officials and others working for the City, the public would not be
able to 'properly evaluate the fruits of the government's extensive
investigation.'
United States v. Kott, 135
F. App'x 69, 70 (9th Cir. 2005)."
Though government prosecutors widely embraced public disclosure
of the warrant materials, they proposed certain redactions
with which Consumer Watchdog and the Los
Angeles Times disagreed. In a tentative opinion issued
before a hearing last Friday morning, the Court denied the United States Attorney's Office's request
to redact the names of City employees and other officials,
including private attorneys working on behalf of City. However, the
Court did not decide the issue of whether statements in an
affidavit by FBI Agent Andy Civetti
that Mr. Feuer lied to the grand jury would be released. The final
order issued today makes clear that those statements will be
released, but that any references to the substance of grand jury
testimony will be redacted consisted with federal rules.
"The Court's order is a win for all those who believe sunlight
is the best disinfectant," said Consumer Watchdog staff attorney
Ryan Mellino. "Unsealing these records sends a message that
public officials will not be protected from public scrutiny."
In late 2014, in an attempt to take control of the
ever-worsening DWP billing debacle costing taxpayers hundreds of
millions of dollars, the City Attorney's Office hatched a scheme to
sue itself through a collusive "white knight" lawsuit, in which the
City Attorney's Office controlled the litigation nominally brought
on behalf of DWP customers against the City. The lawsuit ultimately
settled on terms favorable to the City.
According to government documents, following the collusive
litigation settlement, an employee of Special Counsel
Paul Kiesel threatened to expose the City's misconduct unless
she was paid off, and unnamed "senior members of the City
Attorney's Office" directed the extortion payment to be made in the
amount of $800,000.
As noted in the Application to Unseal Court Records filed
on February 21, 2024,
the Los Angeles
Times previously reported that "the end of the
government's case is prompting a new round of questions. Critics
ask why certain individuals — including high-ranking personnel in
the city attorney's office who remain unidentified in prosecutors'
public court filings — escaped punishment."
Lawyers for Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles
Times argued the public has a strong interest in assessing
why prosecutors made the charging decisions they did, particularly
where those decisions were made about highly influential and
powerful public officials who were not charged, while lower ranking
officials were charged.
Tim Blood of the law firm Blood,
Hurst, O'Reardon LLP—who like Consumer Watchdog has been a key
figure in exposing the scandal since 2014—and open records expert
Kelly Aviles joined lawyers for
Consumer Watchdog in prosecuting the legal action to unseal the FBI
warrants.
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog