OTHER WEEKEND NEWS

• Obama’s Pick for Justice Dept. Office of Legal Counsel Dawn Johnsen Withdraws (AP)
• Recommendation for Philly U.S. Atty. Finally Forwarded to White House (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• U.S. Attorney Nominee  in Tennessee Considered a Quick Study (Tennessean)

By Allan Lengel

The arrest of three Chicago area mobsters on Thursday — all senior citizens — had the makings of a movie, from the FBI surveillance and listening devices to the plan to knock off an armored car and rob the home of the late mob boss Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that authorities arrested Jerry “The Monk” Scalise, 73, Art Rachel, 71 and Robert Pullia, 69, all of the Chicago area. Scalise and Rachel were both convicted in the infamous 1980 heist in London in which the men made off with jewelry including a famous Marlborough Diamond. They appeared in federal court Friday afternoon and were detained, the paper reported.

The Sun-Times reported that the feds charged all three men with planning to rob an armored car that was going to pick up money at a bank in LaGrange, a Chicago suburb.

The paper reported that the FBI had been surveilling the crew since December and learned that they also planned to rob the home of feared mobster boss LaPietra, who died in 1999.

“All my client has told me so far is this is nonsense,” Terry Gillespie, who represents Scalise said, according to the Sun-Times.

The paper reported that the FBI secretly recorded Scalise’s conversations via listening devices in his van. In one instance, the FBI recorded him talking  about killing a cooperating witness in a mob trial..

“We got to spare some time [and] a bullet for that f—— piece of s—,” Scalise is quoted as saying about the unnamed witness, according to the Sun-Times.

The Sun-Times reported that  director Michael Mann hired Scalise as a consultant for the Johnny Depp film, “Public Enemies”.

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Elena Kagan

WASHINGTON –– Three of the leading candidates reportedly being considered to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens all have had or do have ties to the Justice Department and two are Jewish, according to media reports.

Elena Kagan, 49, the U.S. Solicitor General, the fourth highest ranking post at the Justice Department, is Jewish and Diane Pamela Wood, 59,  a U.S. Court of Appeals judge in Chicago, is Jewish, AP reported. Wood worked for the Justice Department in different posts including  deputy assistant attorney general for international, appellate and policy matters for the Antitrust Division.

Judge Diane Wood

The third candidate Merrick B. Garland, 57, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge in D.C.,  worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney General  and went into private practice before returning to the government as an assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C.  He later went on to work as a deputy assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s criminal division and was then principal associate deputy U.S. attorney general before going on the bench.

Other candidates mentioned include Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit in the 1990s.

Another person mentioned is Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick,  who was an assistant Attorney General for civil rights under the Clinton administration, according to AP.

Currently, two Justices on the Supreme Court — Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer — are Jewish