DOJ Paralegal Fingering Snitches For Her Son's Gang Would Pretty Much Sum Up Trump's Crackerjack Operation
The allegations are sensational, but don't get distracted -- this is a story about a shoddily managed organization.
U.S. Department of Justice (Photo by David Lat)
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey is, in many ways, a microcosm of the Trump Department of Justice. It’s a Department of Justice that kicked off with a busted rudder when Trump fired the only person who knew what they were doing and then, quasi-legally installed an Acting AG outside of the clear line of succession. Then sniveling snowflake Jeff Sessions came on board and couldn’t oversee the most important federal investigation running because of conflicts. He got fired and replaced with a guy who never got vetted was then illegally installed as “Acting” Attorney General despite being a complete joke who can’t even tell the truth about his football awards. After he ran his course, an aging conspiracy theorist took the job and clumsily lied about the Mueller report.
Meanwhile, the District of New Jersey is helmed by Craig Carpenito because the courts stepped in and awarded him the job because after the administration appointed him to the role, they completely lost focus and allowed his interim tenure to lapse without seeking confirmation. They literally can’t be bothered to actually manage this department.
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Speaking of potential mismanagement, prosecutors have charged Tawanna Hilliard, a paralegal in the office, with allegedly passing along DOJ information on gangland snitches to her son’s gang. I’ve never worked for the government, but it seems to me that there used to be some kind of “vetting” process for DOJ employees that would prevent people with even the possibility of gang affiliations from having passwords. This is one of those places where the mere appearance of impropriety should rule the day. The FBI gave Brett Kavanaugh a more thorough background check!
If this whole scenario sounds familiar, it may be because this is directly from The Wire — when Gary DiPasquale in the State Attorney’s Office was selling sealed grand jury documents to Prop Joe. Still, as one observer notes, this is “probably the first time that any government employee in New Jersey has abused his or her government office for personal reasons.” Indeed.
Hilliard’s son was also sentenced to 10 years for a robbery last year and according to the indictment, Tawanna was not happy with the cooperating witness:
Texts between the mother and son allegedly show Tawanna Hilliard complaining that the co-defendant’s cooperation with the investigators after the robbery ruined her son’s defense. The man was “giving up murders, victims, shooters and all…SMH,” she wrote in a text, according to court documents. Tawanna Hilliard allegedly responded by posting a video on YouTube of the co-defendant talking to investigators about that robbery, with the title “NYC Brim Gang Member Snitching Pt. 1.” The man and his family then received death threats from other inmates linked to the Bloods, according to prosecutors.
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Hilliard pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. Put aside whether or not these allegations are true, which they may not be. In any event, this is a complete failure of agency management. Either the allegations are true and the office really dropped the ball over the last few years as it couldn’t put together any semblance of leadership capable of keeping its staff covered, or the allegations are false and they have no idea how their own databases get accessed. A stain on the organization one way or the other.
When the government doesn’t really care about the basic business of government, these are the headlines that result. Meanwhile, all Bill Barr can figure out to do is complain about how effectively Larry Krasner’s running his office. Dude, maybe put a pin in the talking points when your own department is looking into this kind of thing.
New Jersey Paralegal Allegedly Used DOJ Access to Help Son’s Gang Identify “Snitches” [Slate]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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