Letter to the Hon. Corey Amundson, Director and Chief Counsel, Office of Professional Responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice - Whitehouse And Leahy Call for Investigation into Conduct of Former Top Justice Department Official

Letter

Dear Director Amundson:

We write to request that your office review whether the conduct of John Gore, former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division (CRT) of the Department of Justice (DOJ), described herein, violated OPR's ethics framework. Although Mr. Gore has reportedly left DOJ, his conduct remains at issue in at least two ongoing lawsuits, and the Department and its lawyers continue to rely on his testimony in these and other matters.[1] As discussed in greater detail below, other documents within DOJ's possession--though not produced by DOJ in relevant litigation--cast significant doubt on Mr. Gore's truthfulness in these matters. This may implicate not only his professional conduct, but the conduct of other attorneys representing DOJ in matters involving Mr. Gore.

We have obtained documents that raise questions about Mr. Gore's compliance with federal records laws and about the truthfulness of testimony he gave in a sworn declaration in litigation. We believe these documents provide evidence that Mr. Gore either knowingly made misrepresentations in a court filing about the nature of his personal email communications with Republican Party election officials concerning voting issues, or that he acted in reckless disregard of his duty of candor to the court. Mr. Gore's statements could constitute professional misconduct under OPR's framework.[2] Moreover, to the extent other Department attorneys have relied in court on testimony they may have known to be untruthful, that raises separate and equally important legal ethical questions for your office to resolve.

Mr. Gore's credibility is already under scrutiny in litigation regarding the addition of a question about citizenship to the Census. In that case, the government is now facing a sanctions motion based on questions about Mr. Gore's testimony on the origins of a letter from DOJ to the Department of Commerce requesting the addition of that question.[3] This new evidence suggests a pattern of possible misconduct that should be thoroughly and promptly investigated by OPR.

To our knowledge, DOJ attorneys in these lawsuits have not identified the documents discussed in this letter that cast doubt on the veracity of Mr. Gore's testimony, or otherwise updated relevant court filings. This raises separate and ongoing legal ethical questions for OPR to investigate under its analytical framework. It therefore remains critical that OPR investigate the truthfulness of Mr. Gore's testimony, as well as the knowledge of other Department attorneys with respect to the truthfulness of that testimony.

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