Opinion ID: 196355
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Internal Authorization under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2516(1)

Text: 18 Title III compels local prosecutors to obtain internal authorization from a statutorily-designated Justice Department official prior to applying for a judicial interception order. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2516(1). Failure to comply with this central provision of Title III requires suppression of the fruits of the unauthorized interception. United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 524-29, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 1831, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974). As noted, London contends that the initial interception application was not authorized by a statutorily-designated Justice Department official. London is mistaken. 19 The government attached to its initial interception application the first page of a two-page authorization memorandum prepared on October 24, 1986, by William F. Weld, then the Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, and the second page of the cover letter which accompanied the Weld memorandum, which was signed for Weld by Frederick D. Hess, the Justice Department's Director of the Office of Enforcement Operations of the Criminal Division. It is undisputed that Weld was a statutorily-designated official and Hess was not. In rejecting London's suppression motion, the district court found that Weld had authorized the interception application (as the application had stated) and that the government committed a collating error by providing page one of the Weld approval letter followed by page two of a separate letter written by Hess to Robert S. Mueller, III, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. 20 London does not dispute the accuracy of the district court's collating error finding; nor does he disagree that the finding would validate the application if the district court was empowered to look beyond the face of the application in deciding whether there had been proper authorization. Relying on United States v. Chavez, 416 U.S. 562, 94 S.Ct. 1849, 40 L.Ed.2d 380 (1974), and United States v. O'Malley, 764 F.2d 38 (1st Cir.1985), he instead argues that the finding cannot save the government's application because the district court was limited to a facial analysis of the authorization in determining whether a statutorily-designated official had approved the interception application. Even if his construction of Chavez and O'Malley is correct (an issue on which we express significant doubt but no formal opinion), the facial analysis London advocates reveals that Weld--and not Hess--authorized the interception application. 21 London's argument hinges entirely on the fact that Hess signed on behalf of Weld the second page of the miscollated authorizing papers that were attached to the interception application. What it neglects to take into account, however, is that Weld signed the first page, which states at the top that it is a memorandum from William F. Weld, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division. Furthermore, that same first page clearly indicates that the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division (i.e., Weld) authorized the application: 22 By virtue of the authority vested in him by Section 2516 of Title 18, United States Code, the Attorney General of the United States has by Order Number 1088-85, dated March 28, 1985, specially designated the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division to authorize applications for court orders authorizing the interception of wire or oral communication. As the duly appointed Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, this power is exercisable by me. WHEREFORE, acting under this delegated power, I hereby authorize the above-described [London] application to be made by any investigative or law enforcement officer of the United States as defined in Section 2510(7) of Title 18, United States Code. 23 Finally, nothing in the text of either page of the papers presented to the district court even remotely suggests that Hess, and not Weld, authorized the application. 24 We therefore reject London's argument that the initial interception application was not authorized by a statutorily-designated Justice Department official. 25