Nothing has been easy or simple concerning the investigations into the sexual harassment allegations towards John Falcicchio, and Legal professional Normal Brian Schwalb’s probe of potential felony expenses isn’t any exception. Free Lips hears {that a} messy turf battle has damaged out among the many varied entities to look at the scandal embroiling Mayor Muriel Bowser’s former right-hand man.
After more than a year of pursuing the matter, Schwalb is now beginning to speak robust about acquiring paperwork from two of the entities that led investigations of Falcicchio, in line with correspondence obtained by LL. The AG is urgent the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of the Inspector General at hand over the information they’ve compiled for his or her respective inquiries. And he’s threatening authorized motion in the event that they refuse.
“Refusal to provide this data won’t solely impede [the Office of the Attorney General’s] skill to conduct a immediate and thorough investigation however will even necessitate the OAG pursuing different means to acquire this data by way of the authorized course of,” Schwalb wrote in a June 14 letter to the MOLC. He didn’t specify what data he’s in search of about Falcicchio, who resigned suddenly as Bowser’s chief of workers and deputy mayor in March 2023 and has since attempted to re-establish himself as some kind of personal marketing consultant.
This tug-of-war over the Falcicchio information has been going since at the very least August 2023, when Schwalb’s legal professionals sought entry to the data that the MOLC collected, in line with the correspondence. (That occurs to be proper across the identical time LL first revealed Schwalb’s investigation of Falcicchio for potential misdemeanor intercourse offenses.) However Bowser’s attorneys have been rebuffing these efforts, citing considerations concerning the privateness authorities workers they interviewed. At one level Bowser’s attorneys mentioned in emails that they’d solely present this data in the event that they had been subpoenaed.
Eugene Adams, the pinnacle of the MOLC, wrote in a June 17 letter that his workplace has backed off of that place and could be keen to offer some data, significantly if OAG may very well be extra particular about what it’s in search of. But the battle nonetheless has not been resolved, and Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau is preparing to hold a hearing Wednesday on the OIG’s investigation of the matter.
“Given the character of the connection between our places of work and the sometimes overlapping duties they share, I used to be stunned on the gratuitously formal and aggressive tone of the letter,” Adams wrote to the AG in June. “Particularly, your remark concerning the independence and integrity of our investigation, in addition to a lower than veiled risk to hunt authorized recourse if OAG doesn’t get what it desires, strikes me as lower than collegial. Be that as it might, the MOLC has no intention of combating about this and, as an alternative, invitations a modicum of cooperation—NOT as a result of it’s required—however as a result of it facilitates this trade and certain narrows the objects OAG could search.”
A spokesperson for Schwalb’s workplace declined to remark. The MOLC writes in an announcement that, “however current exchanges with OAG about their claimed entitlement to any and all paperwork from the MOLC,” the company has “already supplied the paperwork/supplies related” to the matter.
Though Schwalb’s investigation has been ongoing for a while now, the AG has based mostly his newest requests for paperwork on a referral of possible criminal activity from the inspector normal’s workplace. The OIG’s independent investigation of the entire sordid affair, run by the regulation agency Arnold and Porter, comprises solely a glancing reference to the matter, noting that one of many two authorities workers who accused Falcicchio of harassment described conduct that may very well be felony in nature. The OIG despatched a referal over to Schwalb for additional investigation on Might 16, in line with paperwork LL obtained.
However Inspector Normal Daniel Lucas additionally famous in that Might letter that the mayor’s attorneys keep custody of a lot of this data, significantly the information compiled by the MOLC, which managed the primary two inside probes of the accusations towards Falcicchio. Both of those inquiries discovered that he possible harassed two girls, each authorities workers. This didn’t sit properly with Schwalb, nevertheless, who can be urgent OIG at hand over the “350,000 paperwork” collected by Arnold and Porter’s attorneys as a part of their evaluate.
“The OIG’s obvious departure from the usual protocol of sharing data between regulation enforcement companies is inconsistent with its duties underneath related D.C. regulation,” Schwalb wrote in a June 14 letter to the OIG director. “It’s perplexing … that the OIG, in making the felony referral to OAG based mostly on Arnold & Porter’s evaluate of the MOLC investigation, would require OAG to hunt data from the very entity that, given its function and relationship within the Government Workplace of the Mayor, led the Council to require independent counsel within the first place.”
An OIG spokesperson declined to remark.
Adams, for his half, argues in his June letter that the MOLC “despatched every part from the investigative file to Arnold & Porter.”
“I don’t perceive” why the OIG doesn’t have the data Schwalb is in search of, Adams provides.
What’s extra, Adams claims that Schwalb would possibly have already got a lot of the fabric the MOLC collected, as a result of OAG investigators interviewed Falcicchio’s first two accusers final 12 months. “Due to this fact, OAG possible already is aware of what was instructed to us by the complainants,” Vanessa Natale, the MOLC’s deputy director, wrote in an August 2023 e mail to Schwalb’s deputies, which Adams included in his response. “Furthermore, OAG ought to ask the complainants for the documentary proof shown to the Washington Post however not supplied to our investigator, in addition to the names of people that may assist their allegations towards Mr. Falcicchio.”
Natale additionally argued that handing over some other particulars concerning the witnesses they interviewed would “chill the participation of witnesses and complainants within the sexual harassment course of” shifting ahead. Therefore, why she requested for a subpoena; the AG’s workplace truly has very restricted subpoena energy, per the D.C. code, and may solely demand paperwork inside three days of any alleged offense.
“On this context, OAG has no subpoena authority, a remarkably restricted felony jurisdiction over any alleged expenses or crimes—and the discharge of the requested paperwork/supplies are constrained by relevant personnel laws and/or Mayor’s Order, particularly the place OAG can conduct its personal investigation into the alleged conduct underlying the felony referral which OAG has recognized about since final summer season,” MOLC writes in its response to LL’s inquiry.
Adams added in his letter earlier this month that “our hesitancy could be eased if there was a clearer concept of what OAG is taking a look at as actionable felony conduct and what data/proof would possibly assist that.”
LL would word, although, that the OIG report is clear that the second girl to make claims towards Falcicchio wrote in her preliminary letter reporting his actions that she might declare “widespread regulation sexual assault, sexual harassment, and retaliation” underneath federal and native civil rights legal guidelines. It’s not precisely a thriller what Schwalb’s investigation would possibly entail, and it most likely isn’t too onerous for Adams to think about what data they’d wish to see.
The mayor’s attorneys have insisted up and down that their investigation was neutral, that they completely reviewed all of the related information and that they’ve tried to transparently talk all this to the general public. However time and again, the workplace positive appears to have fallen wanting these targets.
The OIG report, in truth, laid out several ways by which the MOLC’s evaluate fell brief. LL would possibly submit that slightly humility and rather less defensiveness may be so as.
