Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Delivers Remarks at the Wharton School’s Legal Studies and Business Ethics Lecture Series

Philadelphia, PA ~ Thursday, February 21, 2019

Thank you for that kind introduction, Dean Ruger. It is a great honor to join you here.

When I spoke at Wharton two years ago, it was one of my first significant public events as Deputy Attorney General. I came back today for one of my last significant events as Deputy Attorney General. Each time, I brought one of my daughters.

I encourage my children to spend time in Philadelphia for two reasons.

First, I grew up about 20 miles from here. I arrived on this campus in 1982, at age 17.

This city, and this university, shaped me. The second and more important reason is that Philadelphia is the home of the United States Constitution. I mention the Constitution in almost every speech. It is not just the words that matter. The history and context matter.

History and context are important.

When I attended Penn, we had fewer sources of information. As a result, my world seemed a lot smaller than yours, and a great deal slower. News arrived twice a day – mornings and evenings – and there were only a few outlets.

Reporters generally refrained from passing on gossip and innuendo. Most people had limited ability to communicate with anyone beyond their neighborhood.

Today, you are relentlessly bombarded with information, much of it of unknown reliability. The internet lets people share their most ignorant thoughts. Many news stories rely on anonymous sources, without providing details to assess their credibility and bias. Some critics worry that our society will be unable to distinguish fact from opinion, and truth from fiction.

But I remain optimistic about your generation. Most adults were raised with the mindset that they could rely on one or two trusted intermediaries to deliver objective facts – a local newspaper, perhaps, and a favorite television news anchor.

But members of your generation take a different approach. You do not rely on any one news source. You recognize that some people who appear regularly on television – the ones who always form an opinion before they know the facts – those characters are in the entertainment business. Because you understand that, you are more skeptical, and less gullible.

I work in a town where almost everyone is obsessed with breaking news,

but I unplugged the television in my office.

I try not to worry too much about what a commentator may say in the next 30 minutes. Instead, our law enforcement team focuses on what it takes to keep America safe for the next 30 years, and beyond.

MOAR:

So let me conclude with advice that a legendary Philadelphian, Rocky Balboa, gave to his son:

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows…. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward; how much you can take, and keep moving forward… [Y]ou got to be willing to take the hits.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-rod-j-rosenstein-delivers-remarks-wharton-school-s-legal-studies

>>5314628

>>5314671

RR CON'T

I hope many of you will choose to devote at least a few years to public service.

If you do, remember that truth is not determined by opinion polls, and history is not written by television pundits.

Ignore the mercenary critics and focus on the things that matter, because a republic that endures for centuries is not governed by the news cycle.

I am proud of what the Department of Justice accomplished on my watch in the Trump Administration.

We made rapid progress in achieving the Administration’s law enforcement priorities – reducing violent crime, enhancing support for the police, curtailing opioid abuse, protecting consumers, and restoring immigration enforcement – while preserving national security, and strengthening federal efforts in many other areas.

Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence efforts and schemes to commit fraud, steal intellectual property, and launch cyberattacks.

In 1940, Attorney General Robert Jackson explained that government lawyers

'“must at times risk ourselves and our records to defend our legal processes from discredit, and to maintain a dispassionate, disinterested, and impartial enforcement of the law,” even if it requires us to incur criticism.

>>5314861

3 laws a day the regulations had anons breaking.

>>5314891

I lost track of holly-weirdo's, but Wharton's alum I find interesting because of Potus Trump & Ivanka

>>5314777

I don't even have kids and want to beat this witch bloody

Stall

Delay

SDNY

They won't be able to walk down the street

UNSEALED: John Ulrich, former VP of a Teamsters Union and Trustee to Union’s Health Fund, Demanded and Received Tens of Thousands of Dollars From Union’s Third-Party Administrator In Exchange For Using Influence With Union and Health Fund

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeny Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, New York Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Michael C. Mikulka, Special Agent-in-Charge, New York Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (“DOL-OIG”); Darren Cohen, New York Regional Director, U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (“DOL-EBSA”); and Andriana Vamvakas, New York Regional Director, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards (“DOL-OLMS”),

announced that JOHN ULRICH, who previously served as the vice president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 812 (the “Union”) and as a trustee of the Union’s employee health benefit plan (the “Plan”),

was charged in an indictment unsealed today with soliciting tens of thousands of dollars in bribe payments from an executive with the Plan’s Third Party Administrator (the “TPA-1”), in exchange for using his influence to ensure the Union’s continued retention of TPA-1 as its Plan administrator.

ULRICH was arrested this morning, and will be presented this afternoon in Manhattan federal court before United States Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang. ULRICH’s case is assigned to United States District Judge Analisa Torres.

According to the allegations in the Indictment[1]:

The Union has more than approximately 3,000 members, and represents workers in the beverage industry throughout the New York metropolitan area. The Union’s members are covered by the Plan, which provides, among other things, life insurance, health insurance, dental, vision, and disability benefits to Union members and their families. As the Plan’s third-party administrator, TPA-1 processed health insurance claims for participants in the Plan. At all times relevant to the Indictment, ULRICH was a member and officer of the Union and a trustee of the Plan.

In or about 2013, ULRICH was experiencing financial difficulties, and solicited bribe payments from an executive with TPA-1 (“Executive-1”) of $5,000 per quarter in exchange for using his influence to maintain TPA-1 as the Plan’s third-party administrator. Before ULRICH solicited these bribes, the Plan had issued a request for proposals for a new third-party administrator, and TPA-1 was at risk of losing the Plan’s business. ULRICH told Executive-1 that ULRICH would use his influence with the Union to ensure that the Plan continued to use TPA-1 to administer the Union’s health care plan. Executive-1 agreed to make $5,000 quarterly payments to ULRICH, and began doing so. Subsequently, despite receiving multiple bids from other third-party administrators, the Plan then continued to work with TPA-1.

In or about 2014, ULRICH demanded increased bribe payments from Executive-1. In part, ULRICH told Executive-1 that these increased bribe payments were needed for another trustee of the Plan, and Executive-1 began making such increased payments. On or about September 19, 2015, ULRICH again solicited additional bribe payments for this trustee.

After a special board meeting convened by the Plan in February 2016, ULRICH was terminated as vice president and trustee of the Union and Plan, respectively. In total, ULRICH demanded, and Executive-1 paid, tens of thousands in bribes before ULRICH was removed from office.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-former-vice-president-teamsters-labor-union