Top federal prosecutor in New York committed misconduct, watchdog says
A committee of New York state’s appellate court system found last month that embattled federal prosecutor John Sarcone, who runs the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York, committed professional misconduct, according to a Washington-based watchdog organization.
The nature of the misconduct and sanctions were unclear.
“The committee determined that there was sufficient basis for a finding of professional misconduct and took appropriate action.” a letter said Elena Jaffe Tastensen, chair of the Third Judicial Department’s lawyer complaints committee. “With this action, the matter is closed.”
There was no immediate response to a request for comment left at Sarcone’s office.
Although the behavior in question was not explained in the letter, a complaint The Responsibility Campaign, presented by the watchdog organization last August, listed many of the events that haunted Sarcone.
One involves an argument last June that Sarcone had with a knife-wielding man outside an Albany hotel, resulting in Sarcone filing official documents with the local sheriff’s office saying the man threatened his life and made gestures “as if he was going to try to slit my throat.” According to the complaint, the Albany County district attorney found that the surveillance video did not support Sarcone’s allegations and dropped the attempted murder charge and downgraded the weapons violation to a misdemeanor.
The complaint also included Sarcone’s statements and actions regarding his residence after the address he stated in his statement about the fight was revealed as a closed building by a local newspaper. The watchdog also told the committee that after a dustup over his residence, Sarcone retaliated against the Albany Times-Union newspaper by removing it from his office’s press distribution list.
Sarcone’s tenure at the U.S. attorney’s office was not short on drama. He was one of a number of U.S. attorneys appointed by the Trump administration who were later disqualified by federal judges who found the administration used illegal mechanisms to engage loyalists while bypassing the Senate confirmation and judicial appointment processes.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield, who was appointed by President Barack Obama following her disqualification. also thrown A pair of subpoenas Sarcone sent to New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime foe of Trump, in connection with two politically charged cases: her office’s civil fraud case against Trump, his two eldest sons, business partners and the family business; and his office’s civil lawsuit against the National Rifle Association.
The Department of Justice is appealing Schofield’s decision.
Despite his disqualification as U.S. attorney, Sarcone continued to run the office from his position as second-in-command as the U.S. attorney’s first assistant.
