Cameras Catch Mystery Break-In at Whistleblower's Law Firm
Posted By John Hudson Sunday, July 7, 2013 - 6:27 PM Share
The offices of a Dallas law firm representing a high-profile State
Department whistleblower were broken into last weekend. Burglars stole three
computers and broke into the firm's file cabinets. But silver bars, video
equipment and other valuables were left untouched, according to local Fox
affiliate KDFW, which aired security camera footage of the suspected
burglars entering and leaving the offices around the time of the incident.
The firm Schulman & Mathias represents Aurelia Fedenisn, a former
investigator at the State Department's Office of the Inspector General. In
recent weeks, she raised a slew of explosive allegations against the
department and its contractors ranging from illicit drug use, soliciting
sexual favors from minors and prostitutes and sexual harassment.
"It's a crazy, strange and suspicious situation," attorney Cary Schulman
told The Cable. "It's clear to me that it was somebody looking for
information and not money. My most high-profile case right now is the
Aurelia Fedenisn case, and I can't think of any other case where someone
would go to these great lengths to get our information."
According to the KDFW report, the firm was the only suite burglarized in the
high-rise office building and an unlocked office adjacent was left
untouched.
The State Department, which has repeatedly disputed Fedenisn's allegations,
denied any involvement in the incident. "Any allegation that the Department
of State authorized someone to break into Mr. Schulman's law firm is false
and baseless," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
After assessing the surveillance footage, Schulman said he believed the
motivations were likely political, but did not suspect department
involvement. "It wasn't professional enough," he said. "It is possible that
an Obama or Hillary supporter feels that I am unfairly going after them. And
the timing of this is right after several weeks of very public media
attention so it seems to me most likely that the information sought is
related to that case. I don't know for sure and I want the police to do
their work."
Fedenisn's case, in particular, has gained attention not just because of the
substance of the allegations, but for her insistence that internal
investigations into misconduct were "influenced, manipulated or simply
called off" by senior State Department officials. The suppression of
investigations was noted in an early draft of an Inspector General report
she gave to CBS News, but softened in the final version.
Last month, her lawyers told The Cable that the department tried to
intimidate her into silence. "They had law enforcement officers camp out in
front of her house, harass her children and attempt to incriminate herself,"
claimed Schulman.
Schulman said the purpose of the visit was to get Fedenisn to sign documents
admitting that she stole State Department documents -- a charge Fedenisn
denies.
Schulman & Mathias represent a range of clients on matters from fraud to
wrongful death to bad faith insurance practices to medical malpractice. Any
number of those cases could've exposed the firm to such a break in, but
Schulman said he was skeptical. "I'm involved in other cases locally, but
those cases are rather stale."
==========================================
(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this
message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to
these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed
within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with
"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The
Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain
permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials
if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria
for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies
as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four
criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is
determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not
substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS
PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment