(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.
The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.
Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.
Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.
The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.
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Finding high ranking government officials who don't have friends or prior positions in the industries they now supervise and regulate would be like trying to turn over a rock in the Sahara and not finding sand. Its the "revolving door" of government and corporations. You know, one of the biggest issues/complaints of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. And the back dorr, kiss-kiss, wink wink bribery /kickbacks/favors system thats been in place (and now is openly rampant) for years. what did those dirty, non working hippies know before their detractors did? OR did their detractors KNOW it and also look the other way? Or did their detractors think the VOTING would help? How did THAT work out so far?
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