“More Former AGs Question Sentence Sought in Bank Fraud Case”

The title of this post is the headline of this new item over at The Blog of Legal Times, which is reporting on some of the latest news involving a high-profile upcoming sentencing. Here are some of the details:

More former Department of Justice officials are voicing concern over the potential life sentence facing Sholom Rubashkin, the kosher slaughterhouse manager in Iowa whose sentencing on federal bank fraud and money laundering charges is set for this week.

On April 21, former attorneys general Nicholas Katzenbach and Edwin Meese III submitted a letter to Chief Judge Linda Reade of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa that expressed concern about the guideline sentence proposed in the Rubashkin case. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, who is now general counsel at PepsiCo Inc., and eight former U.S. attorneys also signed the letter. Click here for a copy.

Nathan Lewin, a lawyer for Rubashkin, said today that several more former DOJ officials —including former attorneys general William Barr, Janet Reno and Richard Thornburgh — have signed the letter submitted to Reade.  Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick and former Solicitor General Seth Waxman are also signatories, said Lewin of Washington’s Lewin & Lewin.  Gorelick and Waxman are partners in the Washington office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. Thornburgh is of counsel in the Washington office of K&L Gates, and Barr serves on the Time Warner board of directors.

Rubashkin was convicted in November on 86 financial crime and related counts for his role in a scheme to defraud a bank that provided a $35 million line of credit to the Rubashkin family-owned Agriprocessors Inc., a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa.  At trial, Rubashkin, 51, admitted making mistakes regarding the loan; he denied any criminal wrongdoing. He has been jailed pending sentencing.

The lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan Jr., who called Rubashkin’s fraud “extraordinary,” noted in the government’s sentencing memo that Rubashkin faces a potential life sentence. Rubashkin’s lawyers argue that the guideline should not be followed. The attorneys say a six-year prison term, at most, is just punishment. A two-day sentencing hearing is set to begin April 28 in Reade’s courtroom.

The court has received more than a thousand letters and e-mails that support leniency for Rubashkin.

I have not recently blogged about the sentencing debate swirling around Sholom Rubashkin, in part because I was asked earlier this month to play a small role in aid to Mr. Rubashkin’s defense team.  Specifically, and in the interest in full disclosure, I had a hand in helping to draft the above-referenced letter to Chief Judge Linda Reade that has now been signed by many former US Attorneys General and former senior Justice Department official.  The full letter with the names of the signors can be downloaded here: Download Former AGs letter about Rubashkin sentencing 

As evidenced by the post at The BLT and by this new ABC News story, it seems that this letter is further raising the profile of a sentencing that is already getting plenty of attention from lots of different folks.