Schock Team Alleges Massive DOJ Trashing of Speech and Debate Clause and Attorney-Client Privilege

Former Illinois Congressman Aaron Shock's attorneys filed two motions in federal court yesterday, alleging massive government misconduct in the investigation that led to their client's indictment on multiple misconduct and fraud related charges. The allegations center around the government's alleged use of one of then-Congressman Schock's junior staffers as a confidential informant who purportedly recorded conversations covered by the Speech and Debate Clause and the attorney-client privilege, and also stole various privileged materials. The government has apparently conceded that some of the informant's actions were improper and has promised not to use certain evidence he obtained, but if even half of Schock's allegations turn out to be true it will constitute a major embarrassment to DOJ. You look at the facts detailed in Schock's motions and have to be wondering what the government was thinking in using these kinds of tactics in the wake of the Jefferson case and Abramoff era investigations that brought Speech and Debate issues to the fore. There is also an allegation that government prosecutors gave incorrect legal advice to the grand jury. Schock wants more information about the government's use of the informant and access to additional grand jury materials. Here are the Schock Memorandum in Support of Motion for Discovery Regarding Use of Confidential Informant and the Schock Memorandum in Support of Motion for Discovery of Grand Jury Materials. Here is coverage from The Hill and the Washington Post. More to come as this case progresses. Schock is represented by George Terwillliger, Bob Bittman, Benjamin Hatch, Nicholas Lewis, and Christina Egan of McGuie Woods in DC and Chicago and by Jeffrey Lang of Lane & Waterman in Davenport, Iowa. The case is being prosecuted out of the Central District of Illinois.

(wisenberg)