Two U.S. inspector generals — one at Homeland Security, the other in the Commerce Department — have been asked to "carefully review" meeting notes indicating that the chief judge of the Coast Guard administrative law system asked a special investigator to retract his finding of another Coast Guard judge had "at least the appearance of a conflict" in deciding a high-profile fishing industry case.
The request for the involvement of two inspector generals was made in writing last Wednesday by Massachusetts Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank and William Keating — one day after the Times reported on contemporaneous notes of the Nov. 15 meeting among Coast Guard judicial chief Joseph Ingolia and two subordinates from the Coast Guard system and Special Judicial Master Charles B. Swartwood III.
Tierney and Keating, who are former district attorneys, and Frank, who went Harvard Law School before entering the field of politics, wrote that they were concerned about the impression left from the meeting of an "appearance of judicial conflict" which "would damage an already fragile relationship between the government and fishermen."
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.