DETROIT — When you serve on the Detroit City Council and one of your employees at city hall tells you the FBI is here to see you . . .well, your mind starts racing. You figure the agents aren’t there to talk about the Tigers’ prospects.
President Pro-tem Gary Brown recounted the FBI dropping by his office a while back during a ceremony Friday in U.S. District Court in downtown Detroit in which he spoke on behalf of his friend Terry Berg, the former acting U.S. Attorney who was sworn in as a federal judge.
Brown told the packed room of dignitaries, which included Sen. Debbie Stabenow, that he thought, just maybe, that because he was in Monica Conyer’s former office, and she was in federal prison, the agents were there to collect listening devices they might have planted.
Instead, he said, the FBI visitors came to ask background questions about Berg, who had been nominated for a federal judgeship by President Obama. That was a relief.
He said he went to say very very flattering things about Berg, his Northwest Detroit neighbor, who belongs to the same jogging group.
Since it sounded as though they were such great friends, the agents — who seemed to be testing him — asked if he could give them Berg’s address. He couldn’t. He told them he was bad with numbers.
In fact, he said he couldn’t recall Berg’s street name, but was able to say where to turn off 7 Mile Road to get there.
After recounting that story about how he almost blew it, he turned to Berg and told him he was surprised he got confirmed.
