news McQuade


priorities, which were things that this community really needs right now. And those priorities are terrorism — the Abdulmutallab case, Militia case — violent crime, public corruption. I’ve put more prosecutors on public cor- ruption to move those cases more quickly, financial fraud which victimizes many of our citizens in terms of mortgage fraud, health care fraud and environmental cases. And civil rights, another priority area that I think has been un- derserved in the past. We cre- ated a new civil rights unit to address some of those needs.


MC: With you at the top,


what is going to change as far as cases and investigations moving quickly?


BM: I understand that per-


spective and I share the frus- tration that sometimes our cases take such a long time to come to fruition. I think the reason they can take so long is that we want to make sure that when people’s liberty is at stake that we are being careful and thorough. To prove some- one guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is a very high standard and it should be. But we want to make sure that we have a very strong likelihood of win- ning before we bring a case. I also understand that there is a need for some urgency and a need for people to move on. Targets of an investigation de- serve the opportunity to either be charged or not be charged. And the city needs the oppor- tunity to not always be under a cloud of suspicion.


At some point people need


closure. So one of the things I’ve done in the public cor- ruption arena is re-staff that group. We’ve got a core group of people who have been work- ing very hard on cases for a long time. We’ve beefed up that group to 11 lawyers and we’ve also tried to move off their plates some additional kinds of cases they had so they can focus all of their at- tention on public corruption. We try to give them all the re- sources they need both within the office and through investi- gative agencies.


MC: How long will it take


before the mounting investiga- tion of corruption at city hall comes to an end?


BM: I can’t answer that but


I tell you it’s going to be soon. MC: You were very con-


cerned about leaks to the press. Why?


BM: Leaks are very damag-


ing whenever they come out of the office because we are sworn by grand jury secrecy rules to protect what goes on in grand juries. And there are some good reasons for that. One is to protect the integrity of the investigation. If people know what is happening they can be tipped off, destroy re- cords, so it hurts our case. But I also think it does a dis- service to the community be- cause it suggests there’s been wrongdoing when there’s been no criminal charges yet.


There are variety of places a


leak could come from. Some- times it could come from a prosecutor’s office, it could come from investigative agen- cies or it could even come from witnesses who appear before the grand jury and report the questions they are asked. But I wanted to make sure that leaks weren’t coming out of my office. So we did do an internal inves- tigation after some articles were written earlier this year to determine what the source of the information published was and we were satisfied that information did not come out of our office. But I have made it clear to everyone working in our office that we are bound by the rules of confidential- ity in the grand jury and when we talk to the press it is only matters of public information. We want to have a transparent


Dillion


union shops are on time, on budget. They get done because they invest in training people.”


He added that a recent meeting


with Bob King (UAW vice president and director of the National Ford De- partment) was encouraging because the launch of the Taurus was the best quality driven launch in the his- tory of Ford, if not the auto industry overall.


“He was telling me there were


about three or four battles that they had, UAW with management at Ford,” he said.


Dillon’s number one goal as gover-


nor would be jobs. He said 50 percent of all job loss in the country in the last ten years has been in Michigan.


“We’ve gone from a top 20 per


capita income state to a bottom 10,” he said. “So we’ve had some really serious tough times here. But I look at it and say, how do we fix this?”


His answer: Michigan has a lot of


assets it can build on. He cited four. Despite the job loss, Michigan


is number two in the country in re- search and development investment. He said the knowledge-based econo- my is sitting right here in Michigan and that it’s the pipeline for middle class jobs of the future.


Second, agriculture is the state’s


second biggest industry. Dillon said it’s a $70 billion industry. He be- lieves if the state spends one-third of the time it spends fighting to protect its manufacturing base on fighting to grow agriculture, that will lead to job creation.


Third is tourism. Dillon said Mich-


igan has great assets and quality of life offerings, including the Great Lakes, golf, skiing and the arts.


Fourth is the skilled workforce in-


dustry and existing infrastructure. Dillon also said we need to get all


our economic engines coordinated and focused on a 10-year vision.


“So that when we’re recruiting


businesses to come to the state, or when we’re working with businesses already here, there’s a one-stop shop so that we cut through a lot of the red tape.”


The other critical piece, according


to Dillon, is that the state won’t turn around without the cities turning around. He said he has a comprehen- sive 12-point urban agenda plan.


“It’s access to jobs; it’s access to


transportation; it’s access to health care; it’s public safety in the neigh- borhoods; it’s making certain that kids have access to a good educa- tion,” he said, adding that his ad- ministration will have a cabinet-level position responsible for the urban agenda.


“We’re going to meet every two


weeks because I want an update,” he said.


Dillon also said the regional tran-


sit authority has to happen, but we won’t solve our mass transit problem if we let every city opt in or opt out.


He spoke to Mayor Dave Bing,


Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Macomb County Commission Chair Paul Gieleghem at the recent Detroit Regional Cham- ber Mackinac Policy Conference, and said they need to follow up on that meeting, get everyone in the room, cut the deal, and pass the legislation that will create the authority.


Asked if he would pick an African-


American lieutenant governor, Dillon said, number one, he would pick the best candidate.


“Two, I think part of the criteria


for who is the best candidate is to make certain the Democratic ticket reflects the state’s population, and reflects the diversity our state has,” he said.


THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE


June 16-22, 2010 Page A-4 From page A-1


prosecutor and I worked very hard. But as years went by I started thinking about how I’ll do things differently if I ever had the chance and with the election of President Obama I thought maybe I had a shot.


MC: What was in the back


of your mind when you ap- plied?


BM: To some extent I was


BARBARA MCQUADE, U.S. Attorney.


in the right place at the right time. I think as you mentioned there’s been the political fall- out from the last time around. I think in the past this position has been maybe a little more political than it was this time around. I was a career pros- ecutor. But the process was Sen. Levin and Sen. Stabenow put together an advisory com- mittee of 25 lawyers. They had a written application and an interview and I went through that process. As a result of that process the senators rec- ommended me to President Obama, who nominated me in November and I was confirmed by the Senate on Christmas Eve. I was very happy and thought that was the greatest thing and the very next day Abdulmutallab flew in from Amsterdam and tried to blow up a plane over Detroit.


organization and let people know what we are doing. But with respect to the substance of our investigations that are pending and not yet charged, we would take very seriously anyone who discloses that and the consequences could lead to termination.


MC: Has the U.S. Attorney’s


Office lost cases in the past as a result of leaks to the press?


BM: I don’t know that we’ve


lost any cases as a result of leaks to the press. But I do think that it can compro- mise cases and I also think it unfairly smears people who may never be charged with a crime. Just because some- one is a subject of investiga- tion doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve done something wrong. It just means they are being investigated. Those are two very different things.


MC: Explain what it means


to be a target of an investiga- tion.


BM: Under our grand jury


rules and policy, the public should never know that some- body is simply a target of a grand jury investigation. Now I suppose that gets out from time to time from whether its witnesses or agencies or someone. But to be a target of an investigation means that we’ve got sufficient evidence to suggest that someone may have committed a crime. But before we actually charge them we must establish at least probable cause that they’ve committed a crime. We really have a standard beyond that which is a reasonable expecta- tion of conviction at trial and so we’re going to build enough evidence until we think that we’ve got enough evidence that this person, if brought to trial, will be convicted.


It’s the policy of the Depart-


ment of Justice to neither con- firm nor deny the existence of an investigation. So by that policy we are not entitled to say this person was the target of an investigation but they’ve been cleared and are no longer the target. I can understand why that might be helpful but we are not supposed to say that they are target in the first place.


MC: Under the George Bush


presidency there was the rev- elation of federal prosecutors on a hit list for refusing to be politically controlled which led to some firing of U.S. Attor- neys across the country. Some defendants recently charged by your office fired back with accusations of political ma- nipulation. What role, if any, does political expediency have in the U.S. Attorney’s Office?


BM: None whatsoever and


it never should. I don’t believe that in this district politics ever played a part in any charg- ing decision. But when you have a situation like you had in the last administration with some U.S. Attorneys being fired across the country, it calls into question everything we do right here at home. So it was very damaging because I think people speculate that decisions are politically moti- vated. Whenever you are going after someone who is a politi- cian, public office holder they are going to be of one party or another. So I suppose you can be accused of attacking someone based on political grounds, but it has no place in what we do. We work very hard to base our cases on evidence and not on politics and we will seek to hold accountable any public official who misuses the public trust.


MC: What is going to make


your tenure different? BM: If I can achieve one


thing it is to reduce violent crime. It is extremely impor- tant. We’ve seen the recent rash of killings and shootings but its nothing new. We’ve had violent crime in our communi- ty for a long time. What I want to do is take a comprehensive approach to it. It is not enough just to aggressively enforce the law and lock people up. We’ve been doing that for a long time and you can see that doesn’t work. Its part of the equation, but I think prevention and community trust also need to be part of that plan.


MC: But that’s very rare for


a top law enforcement official like yourself to say that lock- ing up people has not worked. It’s a shift of the pendulum.


BM: Maybe so but I don’t


know. There are other people in this community who share that view. I have been meet- ing with community leaders, Chief Evans at the police de- partment, Kym Worthy at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. We are all doing a lot of little things but let’s get our- selves all together to the table and make sure we are doing all we can do to not only ag- gressively enforce the laws against violent crime but in terms of prevention. Crime is just a symptom of underlying problems. Our economy has suffered and so when people have a lack of job opportu- nity, educational opportunity crime is a symptom of that. If we can have intervention in schools, re-entry programs for offenders who are coming out of prisons and give them some opportunities so they don’t just go back to their old as- sociates and habits that would be a productive thing. That’s


something that we are work- ing on.


MC: On the question of


Aiyana Jones, the 7-year-old killed by a police bullet, will the Justice Department do anything on that case?


BM: Right now we are still


monitoring the situation. There is an internal process for reviewing a situation like that with the Michigan State Police and they are looking at it, and we are waiting to see what results come out of that. And if we reach a point where we are not satisfied with the result of that investigation then we would certainly inter- vene. That’s another example of why community trust is so important and why police rela- tionships with the community is so important. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We need to make sure our police practices are con- sistent.


MC: How would the police


department do that within the context of being under a Jus- tice Department monitor?


BM: Yes, we do have a con-


sent degree in place with the Detroit Police Department. They have remedied some of the egregious practices that existed previously, like lock- ing up witnesses. They solved some of the bigger problems but it moved slowly in terms of making real progress like in-car cameras. They help the police officer, they help pros- ecutors and they help citizens to hold police officers account- able for what really happens in a police situation. Having a database that will flag when an officer is involved in incidents that result from complaints from citizens. If we are suc- cessful we can improve the way policing is done in Detroit. But I think the current police department and the current mayor are very committed, the deputy mayor, Saul Green...I have confidence in their abil- ity to get it done.


MC: Your critics say you


lost the Carl Marlinga case, the Geoffrey Fieger case. How do you as the new U.S. At- torney rise in the face of that kind of criticism?


BM: You know we certainly


deserved to be criticized. I will always take it, accept it and try to use it to do better. We can’t be afraid to take hard cases and from time to time we are going to lose. And that is what I want to tell our prosecutors because I don’t want them to be so gun-shy that they are afraid to bring a case that they think there is some risk of losing because sometimes you have to be brave and will- ing to take a hit. But the thing


that we are doing differently to try to improve is we’re put- ting together teams of people to vet our cases before indict- ment and before trial. So we are trying to improve our suc- cess.


MC: Some of your critics


claim race plays into federal prosecutions. You see, for ex- ample, Black officials going down but the White business- men they did business with get a slap on the wrist and walk away. How do you respond?


BM: I think that has been a


problem in the past — a prob- lem in fact and a problem in perception. And so we want to make sure we are addressing people in a much more uni- formed manner, that we are not giving a free pass to people. In any criminal enterprise it is common to make deals with lower level defendants in an effort to convict higher level defendants. And so some- times that dynamic has gone on but I think having a better awareness of that perception is really important because the perception of justice is sometimes just as important as justice in fact. People need to feel the system is fair, and trust the system for us to be successful.


MC: I have heard through


the grapevine that your big- gest fish are Kwame Kilpatrick and Bernard Kilpatrick. Is that true?


BM: I can’t comment on


that. MC:


(laughs) You can’t


comment on that? BM: (laughs) No, I declined


comment respectfully. MC: But the Federal Bureau


of Investigations just sub- poenaed WXYZ for a tape of Kwame Kilpatrick’s first debate relating to comments he made about the civic fund and IRS.


BM: I don’t want to com-


ment on what may or may not be in the grand jury subpoe- na. I read that in the paper as well.


MC: Do you have any guber-


natorial ambitions? BM: (laughs) No, I’m really


happy to have this job. As an assistant U.S. Attorney this was kind of the dream job and I am really focused on doing the best I can.


MC: So you walked into


that office 12 years ago with the mindset that you will one day become the U.S. Attor- ney?


BM: Oh I didn’t start with


that. I walked in the office 12 years ago with the mindset that I want to be a really good


MC: What is the biggest


challenge for your office right now?


BM: I think violent crime


is the biggest challenge for us right now. When people are dying in the streets, from a 7- year-old girl to a 69-year-old grandmother by stray bullet, we need to do something about it. There is just too much gun violence on our streets and I would really like to improve the quality of life in our com- munity.


MC: Why did you set up


a Civil Rights Unit in your office?


BM: Because I think we


want to address an unmet need — civil rights in our communi- ty. We also want to protect our citizens. We are here as the Department of Justice not the department of prosecution. We want to do justice in our com- munity and so if someone has been a victim of a hate crime or housing discrimination, we want to remedy those wrongs. We want to live in a society where all citizens have all of their civil rights protected.


MC: Is this the first Civil


Rights Unit in the U.S. Attor- ney’s Office?


BM: Yes. MC: So it was overdue. BM: Yes, I think so and I’m


very excited about it because I think restoring public trust is a really important part of what we do.


MC: Do you think the


public lacks confidence in your office?


BM: I think it lacks con-


fidence in law enforcement in general. I think a citizen’s contact with law enforcement may be negative, they felt that they were racially profiled or may have been as a result of some conflict or incident in their home. So I think we want to get out and talk with people and let them know what we are here to serve them.


MC: Will you continue to be


in this field after this assign- ment?


BM: I don’t know. I’d like to


find somewhere to continue to serve.


MC: You don’t have any po-


litical ambitions? BM: No, but I have to leave.


I can’t be an assistant U.S. Attorney when I’m done with this job.


Watch senior editor


Bankole Thompson’s weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL TV 38, Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday, June 19, will feature a round-table on the Mackinac Policy Confer- ence. E-mail bthompson@mi- chronicle.com.


From page A-2 He pointed out that he is “very


much” thinking his lieutenant gover- nor pick would be an African Ameri- can, but added that it is not a prom- ise.


Geography would be another


factor in Dillon’s decision. He would also “absolutely” be


willing to listen to advice about gov- erning from his Republican prede- cessors, John Engler and William Milliken, if any were offered.


“You’ve got to learn from people


that have been there,” he said. “I do it now as speaker. I go to people that have been around Lansing’s govern- ment for years, from both sides of the aisle, because I’ve got a Republican senate to work with.”


As governor, Dillon would meet


on a regular basis with the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the House, and the minority leaders of both chambers.


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