A former U.S. attorney violated federal sexual harassment laws and then tried to hinder an investigation into her affair, the Department of Justice's inspector general said on June 7.
The report details the investigation of sexual harassment allegations by the attorney, who resigned during the investigation.
While not identified in the OIG release, an Associated Press story identified the former attorney as Amanda Marshall, who was appointed U.S. attorney for Oregon by President Obama in 2011.
Marshall resigned in 2015, while the investigation was underway.
The OIG said that the U.S. attorney had begun an affair with a subordinate in her office that lasted more than a year.
When the affair ended, investigators said Marshall began sending her assistant U.S. attorney harassing text messages, in violation of federal harassment laws, and lied to department officials about the nature of the relationship.
When the investigation began, the OIG said that Marshall ignored the associate deputy attorney general's instructions not to contact the AUSA by letting him know that he was the subject of an OIG investigation, advised him to hire a lawyer and to not talk to the inspector general.
"The OIG has provided its report to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and [Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys] for their information, and to the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility for determination of whether the U.S. Attorney's conduct warrants referral to appropriate bar authorities," the brief statement said.
The Oregonian reported on June 7, that Marshall "disagrees with certain of the OIG statements and findings (but) she is gratified that this chapter is closed," through an email from her attorney, Allison Martin Rhodes.
The Oregonian also identified Marshall's subordinate, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott M. Kerin, who, it said, remains on the job.
"Ms. Marshall acknowledges that when first confronted by DOJ about the affair, she denied the extent of their physical relationship in order to protect her and Mr. Kerin's privacy and dignity," Rhodes wrote the paper. "She acknowledges the error of that decision and her decision to have an affair with a subordinate.
"In subsequent discussions she was completely forthright. Ms. Marshall fully cooperated with the OIG investigation," Rhodes wrote. "She did not intend to mislead anyone as to the subject matter of DOJ's questions nor the details of the relationship."
Marshall was integral to the conviction of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American student arrested in November 2010 for an attempted plot to car-bomb a Christmas-tree lighting in Portland, Ore.
