Michael Warren
2008-08-15 07:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

I thought that a multidecade kickback scheme would be an issue ripe for the picking for the “most ethical Congress in history,” but Washington proved me wrong again.

Neither judiciary committee in the House or Senate seems ready to investigate potentially widespread corruption in the class-action plaintiffs’ bar. Curious and determined, I played a simple game of “follow the money” in an effort to understand that explained why Congress is unwilling to investigate an industry that helps bankroll lawmakers’ campaigns.

Federal investigations have taken down some of the biggest players in the plaintiffs’ bar. Four former partners of the law firm once known as Milberg Weiss have pleaded guilty to federal charges, including firm founder Melvyn Weiss.

One of those partners, William Lerach, is currently in jail. Lerach’s statement that “everyone was paying plaintiffs” implies that the corruption runs deep.

Indeed, the recent bribery conviction of another famed class-action lawyer, Dickie Scruggs, who made a fortune suing big tobacco companies, is yet another sign that the problems are  industrywide.

But when I contacted each judiciary committee member’s office for The Washington Examiner, few staffers even recognized the names Melvyn Weiss, Bill Lerach or Dickie Scruggs. OK, I thought, the names may not ring a bell for staffers, but the members themselves would surely know some of their largest donors. Wouldn’t they?

According to OpenSecrets.org, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and many of his colleagues on the panel received campaign donations from numerous plaintiffs’ law firms. Nix, Patterson & Roach contributed $5,000 to Conyers for the 2008 cycle.

Thornton & Naumes and Alston & Bird also gave big bucks to other committee members, including Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass. The American Association for Justice, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is one of the biggest contributors to Conyers and company. The group provided Conyers, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, with contributions of as much as $10,000.

Lawyers and law firms contributed the most money to the campaigns of 28 House Judiciary Committee members for the 2008 cycle. When I asked whether they would start an investigation, every Democrat and most Republicans on the committee either refused to comment or would not support an investigation into what Lerach called an “industry practice.”

Senators don’t fare much better on the issue. None of the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that they would investigate, either. Just as in the House, most of these Senate Democrats received substantial amounts of campaign contributions from trial lawyers, with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., receiving more than $50,000 between 2001 and 2004.

So I asked myself, what have these politicians been doing instead of investigating? I discovered that since October, Conyers’ Judiciary Committee has held hearings on immigration detainee medical care, the Jena 6 case in Louisiana, and the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The committee’s legislative calendar even included a hearing to investigate claims made in former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s

tell-all book.

The same week McClellan testified, a Conyers aide told me the chairman “has made repeated requests to the Department of Justice to provide members of the committee with a briefing on these cases.”

But Conyers didn’t wait for a prompt from the Bush administration or the Justice Department to hold hearings on Guantanamo Bay detainees or Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight U.S. attorneys. What gives?

And are we supposed to believe the House Judiciary Committee needs a Justice Department briefing before it can look at a corruption case involving one of the top class-action law firms in the country? Could it be the committee members are more concerned with their re-election campaigns than their legislative duties?

A handful of House Republicans, including Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, told me they supported an investigation. Smith even co-signed a letter with House Minority Leader John Boehner, of Ohio, calling on the Democratic leadership to start one. What more will it take for Conyers to put this issue on the agenda?

Vanderbilt University senior Michael Warren interned with The Washington Examiner editorial page this summer.