DOJ Says They Can No Longer Afford To Respect The Attorney-Client Privilege [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

DOJ Says They Can No Longer Afford To Respect The Attorney-Client Privilege

24 Jul 2014 at 10:17 AM
Department of Justice, White-Collar Crime
By Matt Kaiser

....
Ok, now let’s suppose that you are locked up. ... Your lawyer is working on your appeal while you’re in the Bureau of Prisons. You’re not lucky enough to be dripping with cash. You want a good defense, even a very good defense, but you’re also watching your dollars. ... Or, perhaps you’re CJA {Criminal Justice Act} and a judge is watching your lawyer’s hours — not being terribly eager to pay for much beyond the basic package when it comes to representation. ... For whatever reason — suppose you read about the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel back in Junior High — you decide that you’d like to talk to your lawyer about your case.
....

(4) You can use CorrLinks — the prison email system. Think of it as AOL, except instead of being for old people, it’s for people in a federal prison. It’s fast, it’s free, and it comes with a notice saying the prison can read your email. ... Let’s assume that defense lawyers need to communicate with their clients about a complicated matter of some urgency. ... Like a court case.
....

And the predictable thing is happening as a result — as the New York Times reports, federal prosecutors are reading emails between attorneys and their clients in white-collar cases. ... Because money is the reason at least one federal prosecutor is offering for why it’s ok:

{United States District Court Judge Dora L. Irizarry} seemed to take particular offense at an argument by a prosecutor… who suggested that prosecutors merely wanted to avoid the expense and hassle of having to separate attorney-client emails from other emails sent via {CorrLinks}.

That’s right — DOJ says it gets to read attorney client emails, because it would be too expensive to cull non-attorney client emails!