Taxpayers to pick up tab for DA's lawyer in connection with federal probe
Philadelphia taxpayers will be picking up the tab for a lawyer representing District Attorney Seth Williams in response to a federal probe of his political, personal, and nonprofit finances.
Philadelphia taxpayers will be picking up the tab for a lawyer representing District Attorney Seth Williams in response to a federal probe of his political, personal, and nonprofit finances.
The city Law Department on Thursday said John Pease III, a former assistant U.S. attorney now at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, will be paid $225 an hour to advise Williams "in a government investigation."
Marcel Pratt, chairman of the Law Department's Litigation Group, said in an email that the city's Home Rule Charter requires his office to "provide legal advice to city officials and employees concerning matters arising in connection with the performance of their official duties."
That "routinely" falls to outside attorneys, Pratt added in his email.
A spokesman for Williams referred questions to the Law Department.
The Law Department will stop payments, Pratt wrote, if the investigation "does not relate to conduct within the scope" of official duties or if criminal charges are filed.
The Law Department will also pay Michael Schwartz, another former assistant U.S. attorney now at Pepper Hamilton, "to advise certain attorneys and staff at the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, who are potential witnesses, not targets, in a government investigation," Pratt said.
So far, no legal bills have been paid to Morgan Lewis or Pepper Hamilton, Pratt wrote.
A draft of the agreement between the Law Department and Morgan Lewis, obtained by the Inquirer, said the firm's contract would be capped at $350,000 for services from June 2016 to June 2017.
"The Law Department is still negotiating contractual terms with these firms, including any caps on the amount of legal fees that the city will pay," Pratt wrote. "There are no agreements to pay any flat fees to the attorneys."
The District Attorney's Office last month confirmed that some staffers had been interviewed by FBI agents.
That came just days after Williams amended five years of financial disclosure statements to list $160,050 in previously unreported gifts.
The Inquirer reported in August 2015 that the FBI and IRS, working with a federal grand jury, issued subpoenas for records from the political action committee Williams used to run for public office in 2005, 2009, and 2013.
The Second Chance Foundation, a nonprofit Williams founded in 2011, received a federal subpoena for financial documents last month, according to the nonprofit's former chairman.
And a real estate investor who once held a campaign fund-raiser for Williams told the Inquirer in June that he had been visited twice by FBI agents in the last year, asking about a house he rented to Williams' ex-wife.
215-854-5973 @ByChrisBrennan