CDLU Calls on Trump Administration to Fire Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2017 -- With the federal indictment yesterday of two partners of the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, the Consejo de Latinos Unidos (CDLU), a national advocacy group and public charity, called on the Trump Administration to fire Jeffrey H. Wood, Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, for his role in an alleged conspiracy to suppress African-Americans in Alabama from testing their toxic and contaminated properties under the CERCLA/Super Fund Act.

Before joining the Trump Administration, Wood was a lobbyist at Balch & Bingham, working for their Energy, and Environmental and Natural Resources practices out of their Washington, D.C. offices. Steven McKinney, head of the Environmental and Natural Resources practice at Balch was indicted yesterday along with Joel Gilbert, another Balch partner, who allegedly funneled $360,000 in bribes to a corrupt Alabama state politician who in turn discouraged African-Americans from getting their toxic property tested.

K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the CDLU stated, “We applaud U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town for seeking justice for the poor African-Americans of North Birmingham who were the real victims in this bribery scheme. Now is the time for the Trump Administration to dismiss acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources Jeffrey H. Wood who as a Balch & Bingham lobbyist worked closely with these two indicted partners and had his fingerprints on this debacle. Individuals tied to environmental racism should have no sanctuary in the U.S. Department of Justice or the Executive Branch."

According to lobbying disclosure reports, Wood met on Capitol Hill to discuss CERCLA/Superfund laws and policies in the second quarter and third quarters of 2016.  In addition, the CDLU reviewed a U.S. Department of Justice memo from February saying, because of his work at Balch, Wood would be recused from any “CERCLA matters related to the North Birmingham CERCLA site in Alabama.”

Forbes added, “Wood’s fingerprints are definitely on this debacle, if not he would not have been recused.”

In early June, the Trump Administration quietly decided to nominate Jeffrey Bossert Clark instead of Wood as Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division after the CDLU sent dispatches to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary calling on them to block the Wood nomination.

The CDLU has been investigating Balch & Bingham since last year regarding the Newsome Conspiracy Case. Burt Newsome, a small-town sole-practitioner attorney, was wrongly targeted, falsely arrested, and defamed. Since 2001, CDLU’s advocacy work has been profiled by People Magazine, The Washington Post, and CBS’ 60 Minutes.

CONTACT: K.B. Forbes 202.320.1212 text or call
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