CREW Files Ethics Complaint Against Former Senate Staffer Manuel Miranda.

Business Editors/Legal Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 12, 2004

Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, filed an ethics complaint against Manuel Miranda, former staff member to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, with the New York Bar. CREW's complaint alleges that Mr. Miranda, a member of the New York Bar, violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by surreptitiously examining materials on the computers of democratic staff attorneys on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

New York Bar Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4) prohibits an attorney from engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. In 2001, the Bar's Committee on Professional Ethics issued an opinion stating that using technology to surreptitiously examine and trace electronic documents is a violation of that rule.

The Committee on Professional ethics cited to a formal opinion issued by the American Bar Association which provides that when a lawyer comes into possession of material that appears to be confidential, under circumstances where it is clear that the materials were not intended for that lawyer's eyes, it is incumbent upon the receiving lawyer to stop examining the materials, to notify the lawyer who sent the materials, and to abide by the sending lawyer's instructions as to the disposition of the documents.

The complaint notes that Mr. Miranda may have violated at least two federal criminal laws, one prohibiting fraudulent use of government computers and another prohibiting the theft and conversion of government documents.

"Mr. Miranda's assertion that he violated no laws or ethics rules by reading the documents prepared by attorneys working for democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee is ludicrous. Rather than blaming his democratic counterparts for his own criminal conduct, Mr. Miranda should be thanking his lucky stars that he has not been led off in handcuffs," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's Executive Director and a former federal prosecutor. "It is behavior like Mr. Miranda's, and the shameless justification he has offered for his behavior that leads people to conclude that all lawyers are unethical. In order to uphold the integrity of the legal profession, the New York Bar has a responsibility to sanction Mr. Miranda and I believe disbarment would be appropriate," she said.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a public interest legal watchdog group that uses the legal system against government officials who betray the public interest by serving special interests.