The Blog commented back in October about the investigative report by USA Today on the alleged prevalence of governmental misconduct in Federal criminal cases. Well, the Department of Justice has responded to the allegations through DOJ spokesperson Tracy Schmaler, who released a statement on Friday, published in USA Today, calling the paper’s story a "selective review" of a "handful" of cases over the past 18 years. Ms. Schmaler claimed that DOJ has conducted an internal review of the 90,000 cases brought annually and found prosecutorial misconduct in only a small fraction of them. Ms. Schmaler claimed that the Department corrects any mistakes as quickly as possible, and emphasized its priority to prevent mistakes before they occur. She cited the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder has instituted a comprehensive training curriculum for all Federal prosecutors, and has made discovery training for all prosecutors mandatory. Ms. Schmaler also stated that the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility has recently caught up on a four year backlog of cases.
The Main Justice blog reports that Attorney General Holder made statements on Friday following a meeting with European officials that the “overwhelming majority” of DOJ attorneys act appropriately.