STANLEY BRAND COMMENTS ON FBI TACTICS IN INVESTIGATIONS OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
December 2021 — Penn State Dickinson Law Distinguished Fellow Stanley Brand comments on FBI tactics in investigations of members of Congress in Jeff Gerstein’s Politico article, “Fortenberry indictment raises questions about FBI tactics.”
Brand indicated, “This goes back to the age old separation of powers implication of having the FBI and the Justice Department test members for probity. I just think that’s wrong.” Brand served as General Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1980s during the infamous ABSCAM sting investigation where FBI agents created a fictitious company, Abdul Enterprises, and posed as Arab sheiks offering bribes to members of Congress to assist in fostering their U.S. investments all captured on surveillance video. He litigated major cases including before the Supreme Court on the constitution’s speech or debate clause applicable to these cases.
Professor Stan Brand is the On-site Director of Dickinson Law’s Semester-in-Washington D.C. Program. With over thirty years of experience, Professor Brand offers students a particularly sharp insight into federal regulatory and legislative practice in Washington, D.C. He is the former General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives and chief legal officer responsible for representing the House, its members, officers, and employees in connection with legal procedures and challenges to the conduct of their official activities; former Senior Counsel in Akin Gump’s litigation practice in Washington, D.C.; and Vice President, National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (the governing body of minor league baseball). He is a co-author, with Professor Lance Cole, of a casebook on Congressional Investigations. With over thirty years of experience, Professor Brand offers students a particularly sharp insight into federal regulatory and legislative practice in Washington, D.C.