Reading Room Document

Disclosure of Confidential Information Received by U.S. Attorney in the Course of Representing a Federal Employee

This opinion examines whether, in the case of a federal employee involved in a civil suit and represented by an Assistant U.S. Attorney, the self-incriminating information the employee reveals to the Assistant U.S. Attorney that may implicate him in other criminal violations can and should be used to bring criminal prosecutions or take disciplinary action against the employee. The opinion concludes that the DOJ cannot use the self-incriminating information against the employee. The opinion also recommends that the DOJ obtains other counsel for the employee but investigates if the effect of the employee's prior misconduct as a FBI informant should invalidate convictions resulting from those criminal trials. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://justice.gov/olc/page/file/936086/download.

November 30, 1976