Your prosecutor, named "Unidentified" usurped your powers and spoke on behalf of the U.S Department of Justice, without asking permission or telling you, or even telling Jeffy, first.
Perhaps, I should lodge a formal complaint with the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, but I believe it would be a waste of due process because Unidentified may not be a licensed attorney in the state.
Maybe, I should file a FOIA with the Michigan Eastern District Attorney's Office for a list of "all federal prosecutors named 'Unidentified'?"
Oh, you know what, I should file a constituency request through the 13th Congressional District Office under Karen Hass, to help me stop all this leaking from the DOJ by Unidentified.
Unidentified should be held accountable in all this leaking of an ongoing investigation, that is never supposed to be confirmed by the investigators, because that is a breach of "attorney-client privilege", where the client is the United States.
What else did Unidentified tell Archer, Jr.'s attorney?
Unidentified should be investigated, just as soon as you find out who Unidentified is.
Detroit — Federal prosecutors have assured businessman Dennis Archer Jr. that he is not a target of an ongoing public corruption investigation, according to a federal court filing Tuesday.
Archer received the assurance Friday, one week after a lawyer in a civil lawsuit claimed prosecutors were interested in the businessman amid a grand jury investigation into whether Detroit City Councilman Gabe Leland extorted people for cash.
In the lawsuit, Christopher Williams, an owner of the shuttered Centre Park Bar in Harmonie Park, alleged city officials and Archer Jr. conspired to allow Archer Jr. to acquire the property near Randolph and Gratiot. The lawsuit also alleged Archer Jr. bribed local officials, including Mayor Mike Duggan and members of Detroit City Council.
Williams' attorney, Andrew Paterson, said he has received multiple subpoenas for testimony and documents relating to an "ongoing federal criminal investigation" of Leland. Prosecutors also asked him to provide a copy of Archer's deposition in a related civil lawsuit, during which the businessman was questioned about Leland and the mayor.
The claim prompted Archer's lawyer, Derek Mullins, to contact an unidentified prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office's public corruption unit Friday.
". . . during that conversation, the Assistant United States Attorney that counsel spoke with indicated that Mr. Archer is not the target of any investigation," Mullins wrote. "Accordingly, plaintiff’s assertion that Mr. Archer will be the target of a federal grand jury investigation in the very immediate future is baseless."
The grand jury has issued at least six subpoenas during a corruption investigation first revealed by The Detroit News last year.
An Aug. 8 subpoena obtained by The News indicated federal investigators also sought documents involving Leland, Centre Park Bar and whether the councilman had extorted cash, booze and food.
The Aug. 8 subpoena comes one month after Kenneth Scott Bridgewater, a co-owner of Centre Park Bar, sued Leland in federal court. Bridgewater claimed the Detroit councilman demanded more than $5,000 in free club access, drinks and food in exchange for help in a dispute with city officials.
Detroit — A federal grand jury investigating whether Detroit City Councilman Gabe Leland extorted people for cash has issued more subpoenas and prosecutors are interested in businessman Dennis Archer Jr., according to a federal court filing Friday.
Details about the grand jury were revealed in a civil lawsuit between an owner of the shuttered Centre Park Bar and Archer, a prominent businessman and son of former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer.
Christopher Williams, an owner of the Centre Park Bar in Harmonie Park, has alleged city officials and Archer Jr. conspired to allow Archer Jr. to acquire the property near Randolph and Gratiot. The lawsuit also alleged Archer Jr. bribed local officials, including Mayor Mike Duggan and members of Detroit City Council.
Williams' attorney Andrew Paterson said in the filing Friday he has received multiple subpoenas for testimony and documents relating to an "ongoing federal criminal investigation" of Leland.
Prosecutors also asked him to provide a copy of Archer's deposition in a related civil lawsuit, during which the businessman was questioned about Leland and the mayor, according to the filing Friday.
"It's sad when you have public officials conspiring to violate the law in an effort to unlawfully obtain and acquire public property on behalf of a political ally," Paterson wrote in an email to The News. "Accordingly, that is why my clients will continue to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI as they continue to work toward rooting out public corruption in the City of Detroit."
The grand jury has issued at least six subpoenas during a corruption investigation first revealed by The Detroit News last year.
Archer Jr. said the latest claims were made after a federal judge dismissed most of the civil lawsuit.
Dennis Archer Jr., founding principal and president of
Archer Corporate Services,
and CEO of Ignition Media Group.
“These are frivolous allegations made by disgruntled parties,” Archer Jr. said, noting the issue stemmed from a 2015 request for proposals put out by the city to bid on certain properties.
Archer Jr. said multiple individuals bid on the properties but he won the right to acquire two.
“The bottom line of it is these are bitter parties who are upset with me for, I guess, winning a competitive bidding process,” he said. “The whole thing was on the up-and-up. I had a great proposal. They were disqualified because they didn’t turn the proposal in in a timely fashion.”
Archer Jr. said he has a “stellar reputation” and “I did nothing wrong.”
“I’m clear about that,” he said, adding the “baseless” allegations are “an unfortunate distraction” for himself, his businesses and the media.
Archer Jr. denied that he’s a target of any pending investigations.
“I haven’t heard from anyone in the government and don’t think that I will,” he said, adding his attorneys haven’t heard from anyone either. “I work right downtown. They know where I am.”
Archer said the claims are “manufactured” by Paterson. "No one takes this guy seriously," he said.
“These plaintiffs are bitter and disgruntled and clearly have nothing else to do with their time,” Archer Jr. added.
The bulk of the Centre Park bar federal lawsuit was dismissed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Sean Cox.
The only claim left intact by the judge is a First Amendment retaliation claim by the bar and Williams against Archer Jr.
Archer is unaware of any investigation and does not believe he has engaged in conduct warranting the government's attention, the businessman's lawyer Raymond Henney said in a statement to The News.
The Centre Park Bar in Harmonie Park closed in April.
"In the civil case in which the motion was filed and in a related civil case, plaintiffs and their counsel have asserted various conspiracy theories and other actions that are without any basis in fact," Henney wrote. "At this point, we view plaintiffs’ effort as nothing more than another in a series of publicity stunts aimed at unjustifiably attempting to harm reputations."
A Duggan spokesman declined comment Friday.
An Aug. 8 subpoena obtained by The News indicated federal investigators also sought documents involving Leland, Centre Park Bar and whether the councilman had extorted cash, booze and food.
The Aug. 8 subpoena comes one month after Kenneth Scott Bridgewater, a co-owner of Centre Park Bar, sued Leland in federal court. Bridgewater claimed the Detroit councilman demanded more than $5,000 in free club access, drinks and food in exchange for help in a dispute with city officials.
The FBI investigation emerged publicly last year when The News exclusively obtained sealed federal court records that revealed Leland was among politicians and businessmen targeted in a public corruption probe involving wiretaps.
FBI agents were investigating conspiracy to distribute marijuana, bribery, extortion and other crimes in connection with Detroit towing mogul Gasper Fiore or others, according to court records obtained by The News. The records included an application to continue wiretapping Fiore’s cellphone.
Leland was among more than a dozen businessmen and politicians targeted in a series of FBI wiretaps two years ago that recorded conversations involving public officials and businessmen, including Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Marrocco and towing titan Gasper Fiore. Marrocco has not been charged with a crime.
The ongoing corruption investigation is focused on at least three fronts: Fiore’s towing empire, the Macomb County Public Works office and Leland.
Fiore was sentenced earlier this month to 21 months in federal prison and is cooperating with federal investigators. The extent of Fiore's cooperation is a secret but is outlined in a sealed federal court filing that Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor Peter Henning said should concern Leland.
Earlier this year, prosecutors warned the investigation likely will lead to more people being charged with crimes in federal court.
By 2016, the FBI was tapping Fiore's phone and FBI agents listened to conversations that focused on Leland.
Leland, 35, was re-elected in November to his second, four-year term on Detroit’s City Council. He first took office in January 2014 after serving six years in the state House.
FBI agents were investigating conspiracy to distribute marijuana, bribery, extortion and other crimes in connection with Fiore or others, according to court records obtained by The News. The records included an application to continue wiretapping Fiore’s cellphone.
According to the wiretap filing, FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman wrote that Fiore claimed Detroit Police Chief James Craig had “briefed Gabe Leland about the towing case, and Leland has briefed the Fiore family about it.”
Gasper Fiore
In an interview with The News last year, Craig insisted he never told Leland anything about the investigation. He said he contacted the FBI after a 2016 meeting with the Detroit city councilman.
“I was not comfortable with Leland’s questions, and I immediately contacted the FBI as soon as he left the room and told them he was asking me questions about the towing investigation.”
Fiore’s wiretapped conversations describe his distaste for Leland.
“He's another guy that — there with a tight suit on, with a cheap tie and got a hole in the side of his pants on the pocket cuz he don't want to buy a pair of pants,” Fiore said in one recorded conversation.
In another conversation, Fiore labeled the Detroit councilman a "mooch."
In a May 2016 conversation, Fiore complained about paying for unspecified items for Leland.
Separately, Leland has been accused in a civil lawsuit of trying to trying to extort $15,000 from a Detroit businessman.
That businessman, Robert Carmack, says he wore a secret recording device for the FBI after alleging Leland tried to extort the money.
Leland was deposed in connection with the lawsuit in June and repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment.
"Have you ever received a monetary or other bribe from Dennis Archer Jr. for your vote on any issue that came before Detroit City Council pertaining to any business that he was involved in?" Paterson asked.
Leland asked Paterson to repeat the question. He did. Leland asked him to repeat it again. Paterson did.
A lawyer representing the city objected to the question before Leland asserted his constitutional right not to answer.
"Did Detroit Mayor Duggan ever direct you to purposely block any agenda item pertaining to Robert Carmack and any property he owned?" Paterson asked.
"I refuse to answer the question based on my Fifth Amendment rights," Leland said.
"Have you ever received a monetary bribe from Mayor Duggan for your vote on any issue that's come before City Council?" Paterson asked the councilman.
"No," Leland said.
Prosecutors told Paterson they have reviewed the councilman's deposition transcript and were left ""with the same question of why Leland was taking [the 5th] on questions about Archer Jr. and Duggan,'" Paterson wrote in the court filing Friday.
Paterson gave prosecutors a copy of Archer's deposition transcript along with other records.
"Your information is helpful in providing a possible quid pro quo scenario," prosecutors told Paterson, according to the filing.
A lawyer for the City of Detroit abruptly ended a deposition of City Council President Brenda Jones on Wednesday after Jones was asked repeatedly whether she had been contacted by the FBI in the last year.
Jones responded "I do not wish to answer" three times during the line of questioning in the deposition, which is part of a civil lawsuit unrelated to the FBI.
A city lawyer later said the deposition was ended because the questions were part of a "fishing expedition" and a plan to embarrass Jones, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit in which she was slated to give the deposition. Jones also has not been named in connection with two ongoing, unrelated FBI investigations involving city officials: a probe of the city's demolition program and separate scrutiny of towing magnate Gasper Fiore.
The council president's sworn deposition was being taken as part of a lawsuit that two downtown bar owners filed in November 2016 against Mayor Mike Duggan and other city officials based on claims of police harassment and alleged favorable treatmentthat Dennis Archer Jr., former mayor Dennis Archer's son, received while buying the building their bar occupies. The plaintiffs allege that Jones is one of the council members the bar owners had contacted about their situation.
Although Jones has not been implicated in the separate federal investigations, her colleague, Councilman Gabe Leland, was described in January in FBI wiretap recordsas willing to keep the Fiore family updated with information that might help their towing businesses.
Drew Paterson, the bar owners' lawyer, asked Jones during the deposition whether any FBI agents had contacted her in the last year. Paterson's fifth question honed in on Leland.
It came after she repeatedly said she did not want to answer such questions.
Jones told the Free Press on Thursday she didn't answer the questions about the FBI because the deposition was supposed to be about the bar involved in the lawsuit, the Centre Park Bar. "You want to do a deposition about the Centre Bar and what I know about the Centre Bar, I don't have a problem," she said.
Jones said she has not been in touch with the FBI. "The FBI has not contacted me for anything," she said.
During the deposition, city attorney James Noseda appeared fed up with the FBI questions, according to a transcript of the deposition.
Noseda already had objected to previous questions about Jones' political fund-raisers, use of her city-owned vehicle and how she hires staff.
"Counsel, if you want to continue with this line of questioning and all the similar lines of questioning that has nothing to do with this case, I am adjourning this deposition and I'm going to seek a protective order. Are you going to — then fine, we're adjourned. I'm seeking a protective order," Noseda said, according to the transcript.
Jones was escorted out by counsel, the transcript reads.
Hours later, Noseda followed through, filing a motion to prohibit the depositions of Jones and two other council members who were scheduled to give testimony out of court — Mary Sheffield and Leland — because, the document alleges, the depositions are being taken in bad faith and seek to embarrass council members.
The filing also claimed the questions asked during Jones' deposition were the work of community activist and political agitator Robert Davis, who has been represented by Paterson in scores of lawsuits filed against various municipalities in recent years, often alleging violations of the state's Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act.
"The questions were undoubtedly drafted by Robert Davis and are nothing more than a fishing expedition by a non-party intended to harass and annoy high-ranking city officials," the filing reads.
Davis, who is working as Paterson's law clerk on this case, said the assertion is absurd.
Paterson responded Thursday, asking the court to continue with the council members' depositions. The city's objections to questions about the FBI do not fall within the legal framework for withholding an answer during a deposition, Paterson wrote in his court filing.
"Brenda Jones is an 'elected' official. If she was contacted and/or interviewed by the FBI concerning certain activities in her official capacity as a duly elected official of the defendant City of Detroit, that is certainly public information," Paterson wrote.
Detroit Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia, the top lawyer for the city, said in a statement that Paterson and Davis clearly are trying to harass the council members with matters irrelevant to the case. "In our latest filing, we are seeking sanctions against Mr. Paterson, as we have been successful obtaining in past cases involving Mr. Paterson and Mr. Davis," the statement read.
Depositions of the council members were sought to shed light on their knowledge of the dispute between the Centre Park Bar owners and city officials. One of the owners, Christopher Williams, talked with the council members about his problems with the deal to sell the building his bar occupies to Archer Jr., according to court records.
The Centre Park Bar was shuttered about a month ago, Paterson said.
