Life of a whistleblower case
sauce:
2012 memo from US Attorney Eastern District PA
The qui tam complaint must, by
law, be filed under seal, which means that all records relating to the case must be kept on a
secret docket by the Clerk of the Court. Copies of the complaint are given only to the United
States Department of Justice, including the local United States Attorney, and to the assigned
judge of the District Court. The Court may, usually upon motion by the United States Attorney,
make the complaint available to other persons.
The complaint, and all other filings in the case, remain under seal for a period of at least
sixty days. At the conclusion of the sixty days, the Department of Justice must, if it wants the
case to remain under seal, file a motion with the District judge showing “good cause” why the
case should remain under seal. '''In the usual course, these motions request an extension of the
seal for six months at a time.'''
>Interesting that Mueller asked for a 6 month extension
In addition to the complaint filed with the District Court, the relator through his or her
counsel must serve upon the Department of Justice a “disclosure statement” containing
substantially all the evidence in the possession of the relator about the allegations set forth in
the complaint. This disclosure statement is not filed in any court, and is not available to the
named defendant.
Under the False Claims Act, the Attorney General (or a Department of Justice attorney)
must investigate the allegations of violations of the False Claims Act. The investigation
usually involves one or more law enforcement agencies (such as the Office of Inspector
General of the victim agency, the Postal Inspection Service, or the FBI.)
>Hrm…Office of Inspector General>>>>Horowitz
The investigation will often involve specific investigative techniques, including
subpoenas for documents or electronic records, witness interviews, compelled oral testimony
from one or more individuals or organizations, and consultations with experts. If there is a
parallel criminal investigation, search warrants and other criminal investigation tools may be
used to obtain evidence as well.
There are no statistics reported on the length of time the average qui tam case remains
under seal. In this District, most intervened or settled cases are under seal for at least two years
(with, of course, periodic reports to the supervising judge concerning the progress of the case,
and the justification of the need for additional time).
Next post…what happens upon intervention
sauce:
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-edpa/legacy/2012/06/13/InternetWhistleblower%20update.pdf