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Just last week, the Justice Department's Public Integrity division was notifying the subjects of the River Birch Landfill investigation that it was dropping the case and would not revisit the issue. It was the public comments about that case, made in supposed anonymity by some of the top assistant U.S. attorneys, that led to Jim Letten's resignation in December.
Despite that chapter in Letten's career, political analyst Clancy DuBos doesn't think Letten's reputation is irreparably damaged.
"Well, I think Jim Letten's legacy is still pretty secure," DuBos said. "He put a lot of corrupt people, business people and politicians, in jail. His personal legacy, I think, still remains very solid."
Listen to Clancy DuBos:
But DuBos said the actions of the former assistant U.S. Attorneys Sal Perricone, Jan Mann and Jim Mann do create a blot on an otherwise stellar law enforcement career.
"I think the tail end of his tenure is going to have a stain on it because of the actions of some of his underlings," DuBos told WWL First News.
Lawyers for River Birch owner Fred Heebe exposed Perricone and the Manns as the true identities behind anonymous comments left on a local news web site that included details about the case. DuBos thinks the scandal poisoned the River Birch case to the point that the Justice Department realized that it would do the government more harm than good to pursue the case.
