Beware the jurist who develops a taste for U.S. Attorney blood.
In 1998, San Francisco federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel played a key role in getting then-U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi fired.
Eight years later, it appears Patel was the catalyst in the canning of Kevin Ryan, the San Francisco U.S. Attorney fired in December in the now-infamous purge of eight federal prosecutors.
But according to internal Justice Department e-mails that Congress made public earlier this week, it wasn’t Patel’s lobbying that got Ryan fired — nor was it his negative performance reviews.
Instead, it seems to have been Patel’s attempt to get copies of those reviews that convinced department leadership to — as Ryan’s spokesman put it at the time — “come to a mutually agreeable decision” with the U.S. Attorney that he was fired.
Beware the jurist who develops a taste for U.S. Attorney blood.
In 1998, San Francisco federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel played a key role in getting then-U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi fired.
Eight years later, it appears Patel was the catalyst in the canning of Kevin Ryan, the San Francisco U.S. Attorney fired in December in the now-infamous purge of eight federal prosecutors.
But according to internal Justice Department e-mails that Congress made public earlier this week, it wasn’t Patel’s lobbying that got Ryan fired — nor was it his negative performance reviews.
Instead, it seems to have been Patel’s attempt to get copies of those reviews that convinced department leadership to — as Ryan’s spokesman put it at the time — “come to a mutually agreeable decision” with the U.S. Attorney that he was fired.
Beware the jurist who develops a taste for U.S. Attorney blood.
In 1998, San Francisco federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel played a key role in getting then-U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi fired.
Eight years later, it appears Patel was the catalyst in the canning of Kevin Ryan, the San Francisco U.S. Attorney fired in December in the now-infamous purge of eight federal prosecutors.
But according to internal Justice Department e-mails that Congress made public earlier this week, it wasn’t Patel’s lobbying that got Ryan fired — nor was it his negative performance reviews.
Instead, it seems to have been Patel’s attempt to get copies of those reviews that convinced department leadership to — as Ryan’s spokesman put it at the time — “come to a mutually agreeable decision” with the U.S. Attorney that he was fired.
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