WASHINGTON (CN) – The U.S. Justice Department refuses to release the details of deals struck between federal prosecutors and alleged corporate wrongdoers, a suit filed by a law school librarian claims.
Jonathan Ashley, a librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law, sued the agency in federal court, stating that the agency wrongfully withheld the records under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the complaint, Ashley has been doing research on behalf of law professor Brandon Garrett, whose academic works focuses on the criminal justice system and the potential for prosecutorial abuse associated with the deals between prosecutors and big corporations.
Critics of such non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) and deferred-prosecution agreements (DPAs) contend they allow senior level management to escape prosecution on white collar crimes in exchange for a promise to beef up their compliance and pay a relatively nominal fine.
“Courts have been skeptical of both NPAs and…