Federal appeals court releases Torricelli memo
By The Associated Press
09.27.02
NEWARK, N.J. — A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled yesterday that a sentencing memo describing illegal gifts to U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli must be made public immediately.
The document outlines businessman David Chang's cooperation with the federal prosecutors.
Lawyers for a news media group petitioned the court requesting that the document be made public.
The nine-page letter never mentions Torricelli by name, referring to him as the "Public Official."
It urged U.S. District Judge Alfred M. Wolin to give Chang a lesser sentence because Chang "exposed himself to unusual hardship" by cooperating with prosecutors.
Prosecutors said, "Chang's privacy was compromised to an unusual degree. Almost everywhere he went, members of the press pursued Chang and sought to interview him. Once certain allegations made by Chang were reported in the press, moreover, the Public Official and his defenders launched a public campaign to vilify and discredit Chang, referring to him in press statements as a delusional perjurer and suggesting that his allegations were manufactured for political reasons."
Yesterday's appeals court order said the document must be made public in its entirety. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled Sept. 20 that the document should be made public, but court rules could have kept it sealed for at least 45 days — putting its release date at Nov. 4, the day before the election.
Torricelli's lawyers argued that the immediate release would rob him of the right to adequately prepare for an appeal. He objected to the media group's argument that the information should be released in time for the public to consider the letter before the election.
Torricelli said yesterday he fought to keep the sentencing memo private in part because he believed he had been unfairly treated by the media and he feared statements from it would be taken out of context.
"After all the sensational and false allegations about many of these gifts, it remains that there was never a watch, suits or any of these other items which I was falsely accused," Torricelli said yesterday. "It just never happened, and it's time for people to accept."
Torricelli, D-N.J., is engaged in a tight race against Republican Douglas Forrester, who has made a Senate ethics committee reprimand of Torricelli a central element of his campaign.
Torricelli was never charged in a three-year government investigation, which ended in January. Chang and six others admitted making illegal donations to Torricelli's 1996 Senate campaign.
Wolin sentenced Chang to 18 months in federal prison in May after prosecutors certified, in a memo known as a "5K letter," that Chang had provided substantial assistance.
The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Record of Hackensack, WNBC-TV of New York and the American Broadcasting Cos. sought the release of the memo. The Star-Ledger of Newark filed papers supporting the request.