‘Open retribution’ alleged as San Diego’s DOJ office hit by resignations, demotions

Acting U S Attorney Adam Gordon with seal of DOJ s San Diego-Imperial office Times of San Diego photo illustration As a multitude of as federal prosecutors in San Diego have quit under acting U S Attorney Adam Gordon and other high-ranking lawyers have been demoted while the office struggles to fill vacancies Times of San Diego has learned Organizational chart of senior San Diego DOJ representatives but already outdated since Katie Parker has left PDF The alleged DOJ brain drain in the Southern District of California like that seen at Main Justice in Washington includes a veteran chief of the office s national protection section and a one-time U S attorney If you were to take the people who had left you re talking about of the senior more capable prosecutors in the office or civil attorneys noted a longtime staffer who resigned before Donald Trump took office in January I am disheartened by what is taking shape the management that s been put in place Speaking on condition of anonymity this longtime staffer noted Gordon demoted at least one attorney for being friends with former U S Attorney Tara McGrath or her allies calling this open retribution Another source disclosed at least one colleague was demoted for helping prosecute January insurrection cases In March McGrath reported Times of San Diego that investigators who typically work on national assurance or fentanyl abatement as well as ATF agents targeting ghost gun makers were spending less time on their specialties and more on immigration That is less of their time being devoted to general corruption guardian complaints national safety human trafficking cases McGrath announced at the time The longtime staffer s account of modern developments was corroborated by others but also challenged in part by two sources who also spoke on condition they not be named The veteran staffer stated Times of San Diego that two-time acting U S Attorney Andrew Haden now toils on basic appeals cases Haden had turned down Gordon s offer to replace John Parmley a -year veteran who the staffer commented was removed as head of the national safety and cybercrimes section Andrew was offered the job as well as at least two other people the staffer reported citing Peter Ko and Jonathan Shapiro Haden and the others refused to take Parmley s position as a show of aid the staffer suggested in a phone interview Dale Blankenship eventually accepted that job But another source announced Parmley s new role as senior litigation counsel is a prestige position in the office officially a mentor to half the Criminal Division Also reputedly demoted at least briefly was Dr George Manahan an Air Force surgeon before earning a degree from Harvard Law School He s expert in healthcare fraud The longtime staffer commented Manahan a friend of McGrath won accolades at work including Attorney of the Year for civil before returning to the frauds section There s no one frankly better and now he is doing healthcare fraud because multiple people spoke out against his leaving the unit and what they got was a six-month reprieve the staffer stated In February the White House fired McGrath as the region s top federal law enforcer But on July she began work for Perkins Coie a major law firm battling Trump McGrath will be a white collar and investigations partner in its San Diego office Application rejected Adam Alexander Gordon elevated to U S attorney by Attorney General Pam Bondi in April allegedly wasn t picked at first to become an assistant U S attorney here The longtime staffer commented a hiring committee rejected Gordon s application before fellow Republican Bob Brewer brought him into the office in Gordon in had been Brewer s campaign manager in a failed bid for county district attorney U S Attorney Gordon declined an interview request and his spokeswoman wouldn t comment on personnel matters not even to tell me how multiple people work in the Front Street office and who had left But a January org chart proved about attorneys on the San Diego staff including a small number of special assistant U S attorneys or SAUSAs on loan from other agencies Top prosecutors quit Among those departing since January Valerie Chu a -year veteran of the local DOJ office and now a senior appellate attorney with the California Court of Appeal One colleague described her as maybe the preeminent healthcare fraud prosecutor in our area She s also listed as an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego Mark Conover a former chief of the Major Frauds and Population Corruption Section who helped secure the conviction of U S Rep Duncan Duane Hunter In he won the Peter J Mazza Outstanding Federal Lawyer Award from the San Diego chapter of the Federal Bar Association He s now a partner with Robbins Geller Rudman Dowd LLP in San Diego Marietta Geckos a -year federal attorney hailed on LinkedIn as a mentor to multiple generations of attorneys at the U S Attorney s Office teaching them not only the substance of the work but also the importance of being a worthy advocate for the United States She received a warm sendoff at a retirement party Sarah Goldwasser who moved to San Francisco to work for BraunHagey Borden LLP Her bio says she investigated and prosecuted complex cases involving drug cartels fentanyl traffickers human intermediaries and gun crimes over years with the San Diego DOJ Peter Ko who spent years as a federal prosecutor in Nevada and San Diego receiving the Attorney General s Claudia J Flynn Award for Professional Responsibility as well as the Director s Award for Superior Performance He s now a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman Dowd LLP s San Diego office focused on complex review litigation trial and appeals Katherine Katie McGrath an assistant U S attorney for nearly years who served as the district s Human Trafficking Coordinator Elder Fraud Coordinator and Casualties Rights Coordinator She s now a special counsel in the Business Trial Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin s San Diego office Katherine Lind Katie Parker former chief of the Civil Division Office in San Diego and past president of the University of San Diego s School of Law alumni board who left a sparse weeks ago Literally a big loss the longtime staffer stated The current organizational chart obtained by Times of San Diego doesn t reflect her exit Ryan Sausedo who spent over years with the San Diego DOJ and tried more than cases to verdict and prosecuted a wide range of federal violations including transnational organized crime international drug trafficking money laundering wire fraud bankruptcy fraud and human trafficking according to his bio at the San Diego firm Caldarelli Hejmanowski Page Leer Jaclyn Briana Stahl whose LinkedIn profile says she investigated and prosecuted more than cases over seven years involving international drug trafficking sexual assaults and sex trafficking fraud bank robbery customs violations and identity theft She quit upon her return from advising foreign governments across Africa on legislative initiative and institutional reforms to strengthen intellectual property protections and combat cybercrime And Amy Bizhu Wang who left the San Diego DOJ office and was admitted to the Alaska Bar in June She s now as assistant attorney general in the Office of Special Prosecutions of the Alaska Department of Law In May she won a conviction in a sexual assault Shortly after the November balloting Fred Sheppard left the office as well A -year DOJ veteran he had been chief of the Criminal Division Major Crimes Section and General Crimes Section He now works for Sony Interactive Entertainment the company behind PlayStation according to his LinkedIn profile Owen Roth left in December after nearly a decade to join his wife s law firm His bio at Iredale Roth mentioned he s been recognized by law enforcement and the U S Office of National Drug Control Approach HIDTA operation for his efforts combatting organized crime During his time in the Justice Department he was a go-to prosecutor for various of the largest part pivotal complicated and sensitive investigations Times of San Diego reached out to a large number of of these people but rarely heard back The longtime staffer reported Blair Cameron Perez was demoted as well A retired captain in the Navy Reserve JAG Corps Perez in helped create the federal Veterans Therapy Court to help veterans who had been injured while in the operation Still in contact with a few senior management the longtime staffer revealed former colleagues call or text to ask Who do you think we should put on these cases In a phone interview former assistant U S attorney AUSA Roth stated me that morale is extremely low in the San Diego office and that the overall feeling seems to be that the department has lost its mandate to do justice lost sight of its core principles But Roth doesn t blame Gordon who he worked with in setting up the FAST unit to fight fentanyl sales He noted Main Justice s mandate to focus on immigration cases has generated high stress in an already demanding job To be an AUSA in San Diego is unlike being one in almost any other part of the country Roth noted You have to be prepared essentially to work as an ER practitioner in constant dilemma mode because the cases come fast and furious Although Roth doesn t share Gordon s politics he praised the new chief I have absolutely nothing negative to say about Adam he mentioned Adam Gordon could have been chosen by any Republican president from the last you know years He s got impeccable credentials He has more than sufficient experience and his ethics his integrity his commitment to the appropriate use of Justice Department they re all unquestionable Gordon would never have been picked by a Democratic president Roth mentioned but added So what I think that the San Diego population given the choices that this administration has made for specific of the other U S Attorneys Offices sould be relieved he stated Roth also pushed back on the notion Gordon benefited from his ties to Brewer I can also tell you that when Adam applied there was a concern in the office that he was like Bob s guy' Roth announced But Brewer was hands off about it Roth announced It wasn t a secret that Bob had affection for the guy But Adam went through the hiring process He interviewed He was voted on by the hiring committee and when he got to the office he did absolutely nothing to use his relationship with Bob for advancement Gordon went to the new complaint section and handled Magistrate Court like everybody else and he waited his turn to be rotated to the next assignment group which is being on a trial squad in the general crime section and he put in his time there and he took a job handling the opioid coordinators role Adam never once used his relationship with Bob to get ahead Roth commented Roth still recommends the job to would-be applicants On the one hand you will learn more about how to be a trial lawyer in a faster period of time in San Diego than virtually anywhere else Roth noted And on the other hand the pressure on you to do the job right and to keep the cases moving is substantial Another source noted they were relieved that Gordon promoted staff from within instead of hiring old law firm colleagues About three weeks ago Gordon posted on his LinkedIn page Hello all our US Attorney s Office is HIRING both CIVIL and CRIMINAL AUSAs The info is in the link below and please help spread the word in your networks Deadline is July th It s a tremendous office and we look forward to meeting those who are interested in joining our society of ethical empowered and entrepreneurial trial attorneys But the longtime staffer announced I know they ve been trying to fill positions because they made a bunch of changes and then after doing so realized that they didn t have the bodies to certainly effectuate the movement which is why they keep asking for assistants to help cover certain things in court Another source reported Times of San Diego that chosen resignations were linked to the ill-fated Fat Leonard prosecution where a judge in that sprawling Navy bribery event faulted San Diego prosecutors for misconduct in handling of evidence This source declared Chu and Conover left the office because of Fat Leonard burnout and a feeling that they got hung out to dry And a third source stated several openings have been advertised since March with no hires Funding was yanked this source reported adding that one person went for a final round interview but never heard back Buyouts under Elon Musk s fork in the road plan were denied in the San Diego office because of staff shortages according to multiple sources Never managed before The longtime staffer criticized having people in senior leadership who ve never managed before Although the veteran staffer isn t aware of Gordon ordering any cases dropped in San Diego the extreme emphasis on immigration cases has been a concern It s more of just bringing cases that we previously perhaps just wouldn t bring because the evidence is just not there the staffer commented Besides the staff shortage one Civil Division AUSA David Wallace has been flagged by the state Bar as being ineligible to practice law in California Mr Wallace is not eligible to practice law due to noncompliance with paying his annual attorney licensing fees and for noncompliance with his Client Trust Account Protection Operation reporting duties a Bar spokesman explained me Tuesday These are two separate administrative nondiscipline actions and Mr Wallace can become eligible again as soon as he complies State Bar of California listing for David Wallace of the San Diego U S Attorney s Office as of July Wednesday morning a spokesman for the San Diego office replied that Wallace is not actively practicing law at this time due to biological circumstances As a aftermath the spokesman reported his bar license is in an inactive status In the interest of protecting Mr Wallace s clinical privacy I am unable to provide further details Under federal law Gordon can serve as acting U S attorney for just days or until early August After that federal district judges in the region can appoint a U S attorney In all likelihood The San Diego Union-Tribune communicated the judges would appoint Gordon to continue serving in that role until Trump nominates a candidate that could be Gordon or someone else and the Senate confirms that candidate Times of San Diego contacted the downtown federal court for the status of Gordon s appointment but did not receive a response Job offers revoked The longtime staffer noted Gordon s office has interviewed for new assistant U S attorneys but also revoked offers to multiple people including honors candidates who were judicial clerks in the San Diego district which certainly you know leaves a bad taste I know people including a lot of judges who are like I would never recommend that their law clerks apply to be AUSAs the staffer announced It was already getting hard quite honestly to get really quality candidates Where once hundreds applied for every position it s down to dozens and just keeps going down as does the experience and qualifications the staffer noted Politics may play a role When Gordon before being elevated to acting head of the office left town in January he put a note on the outside of his door that he was going to the inauguration of Donald Trump the staffer commented He declared colleagues who needed information on his cases were informed Reach back to me after January th I sought comment from the local chapter of the Federal Bar Association but didn t hear back Harry Litman s take La Jolla s Harry Litman was once a deputy assistant attorney general under Janet Reno and served as U S attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania Now a political commentator on legal issues with a podcast and regular TV appearances Litman shared his thoughts on the San Diego DOJ brain drain This seems to be happening in office after office and whole divisions at Main Justice as well he explained Tuesday via email We don t know yet how widespread the damage but anecdotal reports that emerge suggest it s enormous and very possibly irreversible Speaking generally about the Justice Department he disclosed The norms and principles that career prosecutors take as their blueprint have been erased or violated with impunity Noting the loss of highly experienced prosecutors Litman announced A great number of U S Attorney s Offices have a small cadre of key figures who provide advice and a sense of continuity to younger prosecutors When those people leave or forced out there is an outside impact on the work of the office He concluded by quoting the memo Maurene Comey wrote to DOJ colleagues after she apparently was fired for her role in the Jeffrey Epstein prosecution Litman disclosed the Comey circumstance speaks volumes about the attitude within the offices of the Bondi Trump crowd including their willingness to shade or ignore the truth Comey wrote If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain Do not let that happen Fear is the tool of a tyrant wielded to suppress independent thought Instead of fear let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power Of commitment to seek justice for casualties Of dedication to truth above all else Have a tip Contact contributing editor Ken Stone and ask for his Signal number