In addressing the Danziger defendants' motion for a new trial last week, U.S. District Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt demanded DOJ investigate the matter and directed his order be provided to state and federal bar commissions for possible disciplinary action against Mann and Perricone.

In his order, Engelhardt wrote that he is concerned about both Perricone and Mann's activities, saying that they both made false statements to him during the leak inquiry. Engelhardt recommended that an independent counsel be appointed to investigate the pair's online behavior.

"First of all, having the DOJ investigate itself will likely only yield a delayed yet unconvincing result in which no confidence can rest," Engelhardt wrote.

The 50 page ruling is here.

As I understand the story, there's at least two cases in which there was inappropriate online commenting by prosecutors: The criminal investigation of Fred Heebe and the Danziger Bridge officers' case. Perricone commented on the Danziger case, and Mann commented on Heebe. Mann apparently did not begin posting until after the Danziger trials, but it appears after that trial, she and Perricone joined forces by supporting each others' online comments.

The same lawyer, Gibbons, represents both Heebe and one of the officers, Archie Kaufman, charged and convicted in the Danziger case. Gibbons is a former assistant U.S. attorney who worked under Letten and Mann. When Gibbons filed his motion for new trial in Kaufman's case over the online comments, he also filed civil defamation lawsuits on behalf of Heebe and Kaufman. The first Heebe defamation lawsuit led to Perricone's resignation. Then Gibbons filed a defamation suit for Heebe against Jan Mann. That's when she admitted she posted online. Mann's husband is also a prosecutor in the office, heading up the white collar division. He apparently didn't post online but was good friends with Perricone.

In Gibbons' motion for new trial in the Danziger case, he raised the online comments, and argued:

....that the government engaged in a secret public relations campaign against defendant Kaufman and his codefendants. As a result of these efforts, the government ensured that “Danziger”would become the household name for corruption in the New Orleans Police Department, that public opinion would be inflamed against the defendants, and that the government’s version of the facts would be well known before anyone set foot in a courtroom.

...Defendants further allege that, in addition to these activities, former Assistant United States Attorney (“AUSA”) Senior Litigation Counsel Salvador Perricone, then a high-ranking supervisory attorney in the Eastern District of Louisiana (EDLA), surreptitiously posted opinions and criticisms online on the public web page for Nola.com, which is affiliated with the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper, to undermine the trial itself by making comments, both before and during the trial, that mocked the defense, attacked the defendants and their attorneys, were approbatory of the United States Department of Justice(“DOJ”), declared the defendants obviously guilty, and discussed the jury’s deliberations.

The Court described Gibbons' arguments this way:

Defendants argue that the government’s leaking and unauthorized writings of AUSA Perricone, as well as other actions by the government prior to trial, created a prejudicial environment amongst the public, which convinced certain witnesses to enter lenient guilty pleas, agree to cooperate, and provide false testimony favorable to the government’s theory of the case to avoid the then perceived prosecutorial juggernaut depicted in the media (and based on the government’s conduct). Defendants also contend that Perricone’s postings during the trial impacted witness testimony.

U.S. Attorney Letten was called into court in the officers' cases, and asked to explain the leaks in the paper.

I’ve said this publicly before, neither I, nor Jan Mann, nor people in positions in authority in our office, to my knowledge did not have any knowledge of, nor did we authorize, nor did we procure or have any knowledge of Sal Perricone anonymously posting comments about cases or anything like that whatsoever unti