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Amy Goldstein and Carrie Johnson report for The Washington Post that US attorney John L. Brownlee has testified he received a call from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, the night before a guilty plea was to be secured from the manufacturer of an addictive painkiller, OxyContin. Elston, a Justice aide involved in the removal of nine US attorneys, called Brownlee at the request of an OxyContin executive urging him to slow down the prosecution. Brownlee went on to settle the case regardless, and eight days later, his name appeared on a list of attorneys suggested to be fired.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080107M.shtml

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US Attorney was targeted after rebuffing DoJ

Washington Post

08/01/07

The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year. Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired...

http://tinyurl.com/2r7h3e


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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