The public relations fiasco involving US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s husband’s tweets bring to mind a story about William F. Weld, who served as US attorney in the 1980s before going on to become Massachusetts governor in the early 1990s. Years later, in recalling his media policy as the federal government’s top law enforcement official in Massachusetts, Weld, tongue-in-cheek, would proclaim in a stentorian tone: “We do not comment on grand jury investigations.”
Then he’d add in a stage whisper: “Unless we want to.”
Comments
Carmen Ortiz's husband has the public relations problem, not her. This is not Sacco and Vanzetti. Ortiz's office did its job by offering the minimum puniishment for the crime. Problem is, the offender was living on the edge of life, death and accomplishment. Swartz was mentally ill, afflicted with clinical depression. I believe it was the defense attorney's responsibility to communicate the drastic condition of Swartz's mental state. If the attorney was unaware of this, then certainly one cannot blame Ortiz's prosecuting attorney. This blame business is out of control and brought on by sympathetic hackers.