By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — As part of a shake up in the Justice Department, career prosecutor Mary Patrice Brown will head up the Office of Professional Responsibilty, an internal unit first established in 1975 following the Watergate scandal to police ethical breaches.
Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. announced that Brown would serve as acting head on Wednesday at a time the Department is facing tough scruitiny and sharp criticism over the handling of the prosecution of ex-Sen. Ted Stevens.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan dropped the Stevens conviction on Tuesday at the request of the Justice Department, which conceded that the prosecution had acted improperly.
Brown, who has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. since 1989, became the chief of the office’s criminal division in 2007. Over the years that office has handled a number of high profile cases.
From 2004 to 2007, Brown was the Executvie Assistant U.S. Attorney for Operations, where she oversaw civil and criminal cases, according to a Justice Department press release.
From 2002 to 2004, she was deputy of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section.
“She’s got great judgment, unimpeachable integrity and a tremendous reputation around town,” Kenneth L. Wainstein, who worked with Brown as U.S. Attorney during the Bush years, told the Washington Post. “She understands the stresses and strains in litigation, but also understands the importance of following the rules.”
James Cooper, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the D.C. office told the Washington Post that Brown “is a person of utmost integrity, and I think she will be very effective in that position.”
She replaces H. Marshall Jarrett, who will head the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the Justice Department said.
