New Justice Department Office Will Discipline Prosecutors

The Justice Department announced on Tuesday the creation of a unit that will decide how to discipline career officials who commit prosecutorial misconduct, including whether to refer them to state bar associations for punishment. The unit will review cases whenever the department’s internal ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility, finds that a prosecutor intentionally or recklessly violated the rules to which he is subject. Cases in which office investigators conclude that prosecutors merely made a mistake or had poor judgment would, however, still be handled by their supervisors. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. appointed Kevin Ohlson, who until recently was his chief of staff, to be chief of the new unit.