Legal News

Going Global: SDNY?s Prosecutorial Reach Increasingly Crosses Borders

By Ashby Jones

As U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York, Mary Jo White and Rudy Giuliani all wielded significant power and influence.

But none of them wielded the power internationally that does Preet Bharara, President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the office, and Michael Garcia before him, claims this NYT article, out Monday.

Reads the story:

Since 2004, the office has sent prosecutors into more than 25 countries as part of investigations that have brought back dozens of suspected arms and narcotics traffickers and terrorists to Manhattan to face charges. . . .

With the Drug Enforcement Administration, the office has also taken the lead in bringing cases under a 2006 narco-terrorism law that makes it easier to prosecute international drug traffickers if a link to terrorism can be shown - even if prosecutors cannot prove that the drugs entered the United States.

"I think they are pursuing more kinds of international cases, with a deliberateness that's new," said Mary Jo White, who was the United States attorney for the Southern District from 1993 to 2002, to the NYT.

Why the global push? Bharara said the aggressive approach had become necessary in the post-9/11 era. "As crime has gone global and national security threats are global," he said, "in my view the long arm of the law has to get even longer."

"We can't wait until bombs are going off," he added.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).