Opinion ID: 711029
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Pilon Case

Text: 9 The present appeal involves appellant Roger Pilon's claim that appellee Department of Justice (the Department) violated his rights under the Privacy Act when one of its employees faxed a confidential memorandum to Peter Nowinski, a private citizen, who in turn passed it on to a reporter. In defense, the Department invokes Hollis, arguing that Nowinski, a former Department employee, was already familiar with the document from exposure to it while in government service. While these are the basic determinative facts governing the disclosure question, we set forth a somewhat more detailed factual background, which the parties do not dispute, to place the Privacy Act issue in context.
10 In March 1987, Roger Pilon was named the Director of the Asylum Policy and Review Unit of the Department of Justice. Soon thereafter, his wife was nominated to be an Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior. In January 1988, however, both were informed that they were the subjects of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) inquiry into whether they had illegally given a classified document to a foreign government. Pilon was then placed on administrative leave from the Department, 1 and in April of that year, the Reagan Administration withdrew his wife's nomination. 11 At the close of the nine-month investigation, the F.B.I. declined to recommend that a criminal prosecution be instituted. The Office of Professional Responsibility (O.P.R.) of the Department of Justice then conducted its own inquiry, and ultimately recommended that Pilon be asked to resign or, if he refused, that his appointment be terminated. The Pilons, who for security reasons have never been informed of the evidence underlying the allegations, adamantly denied any wrongdoing. They therefore arranged for their personal attorney (who had a security clearance) to review the evidence underlying the allegations and prepare a rebuttal. After reviewing the rebuttal, the Attorney General ordered that a de novo review of the matter be conducted. 12 That review was completed in the Fall of 1988 as communicated in a letter to Pilon, which stated in full: 13 This is to inform you that the investigations undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Professional Responsibility have now been completed. You will be reinstated as Director of the Office of Asylum Policy and Review as of September 19, 1988. No implication adverse to you should be taken from the investigations. 14 I want to thank you for the outstanding cooperation and patience you have demonstrated during this time. I look forward to your return. 15 Letter from Dee V. Benson, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, to Roger Pilon (Sept. 9, 1988), available in Joint Appendix at 64. Though Pilon was reinstated in full--with his Top Secret security clearance intact--within a month, he elected to leave the Department for a position with a private organization. 16 During this period of time, information to the effect that the Pilons were under investigation apparently was twice leaked to the media: once at the outset of the de novo review, and again after the Pilons were cleared. Neither leak resulted in a published news story.
17 With the closure of the de novo review, it appeared that the Pilons had put this matter behind them. In November 1989, however, the Department released O.P.R.'s 1988 Annual Report to the Attorney General (the Report), which published the allegations for the first time. According to the Report: 18 Representative examples of misconduct investigated by the Office are as follows: 19 (1) A Departmental attorney holding a high security clearance was the subject of a foreign counterintelligence investigation. The information indicated that the employee may have been involved in the disclosure of classified information to a foreign government. The investigation did not develop sufficient evidence to support a prosecution, but did discover that sufficient cause existed to terminate his political appointment. The employee resigned prior to the initiation of removal proceedings. 20 Office of Professional Responsibility, Department of Justice, Annual Report to the Attorney General (1988) 6, available in Joint Appendix at 53, 60. Though the Report did not expressly identify Pilon, members of the press learned his name almost at once, and news stories detailing the investigation and its alleged results as set forth in the Report appeared the next day. 21 Pilon immediately requested that the inaccuracies in the Report be corrected. In response, Attorney General Thornburgh directed Deputy Attorney General Donald B. Ayer to investigate the matter. That investigation was completed in early 1990, at which time Ayer wrote to the Pilons' attorney, stating: 22 I have concluded that, although the Report did not name your client, Roger Pilon, as the subject of the investigation in question, he in fact was the subject, information which later became public. Mr. Pilon is entitled to an apology because of two errors contained in the report and the accompanying publicity. First, contrary to the statement in the third sentence in the relevant paragraph of the report, the investigation of Mr. Pilon did not produce sufficient evidence to warrant his dismissal. Mr. Pilon was invited to return to his former post unconditionally. Second, contrary to the statement in the fourth and final statement in the paragraph, Mr. Pilon did not resign in the face of imminent removal proceedings. 23 We regret the mistakes contained in the OPR Report. 24 The Department further deeply regrets any pain or inconvenience that the passage in the OPR Report may have caused Mr. and Mrs. Pilon. 25