Court Opinion

ID: 9491033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:02:00.749143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:28.479437
License: Public Domain

McKEE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the holding of the majority. I write separately for two reasons. First, I think that we should .reject the assertion that the government has established “good cause” 'to overcome the protection of the privilege. Second, I write because. I believe that my colleagues’ apparent concern for eliminating any taint from this ongoing investigation is misplaced. .
I.
The government argues that “[its] need for the file results from [Capano’s] refusal to testify before the grand jury and speak with investigators. The Government attempted to secure [Capano’s] testimony, but its efforts failed.” Appellant’s Br. at 23. This amounts to nothing more than an assertion that failure to waive the privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment gives the government the right to obtain information that would otherwise be protected as work product because it allows the government to establish the “good cause” needed to defeat that privilege. Surely, one need not waive the protections embedded in the Fifth Amendment in order to preserve a work product privilege.
We have historically been quite reluctant to find the good cause needed to overcome *984the protections of the work product doctrine. See In re Grand Jury, 633 F.2d 282 (3d Cir.1980); United States v. Amerada Hess Corp., 619 F.2d 980 (3d Cir.1980); and In re Grand Jury Investigation, 599 F.2d 1224 (3d Cir.1979). We should not be reluctant to reject the government’s claim of “good cause” insofar as it is based upon the argument that assertion of a constitutional right defeats the work product privilege.
II.
My colleagues note that “if the district court countenanced Capano’s delay in judicially asserting his privilege and then upheld his claim of privilege, the grand jury’s use of the seized file potentially could have tainted its investigation.” Maj. Op. at 982. This may well be true, but is irrelevant. The government risked tainting the investigation when it decided to proceed in the manner that it did. The circumstances here are unique. There is no reason that has been pointed out to 'this court why the government could not have sought to have Saul Ewing secure the Capano file, and then notified Capano of the government’s intent to subpoena it. The district court could then have decided the motion to quash that Capano would most certainly have filed, and there would have been no possibility of taint prior to an adjudication of the privilege. The government was obviously aware of the problems it was creating by seizing the documents and setting up a “Chinese wall” in an attempt to insulate them. Because the Government chose that tactic, we ought not to allow a concern for any taint that the seizure may have created to affect our analysis of the claim of privilege. “The ultimate aim [of the work product privilege doctrine] is to promote the proper administration of justice.” In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 604 F.2d 798, 802 (3d. Cir.1979). That objective is not well served if we allow a possible taint that the government itself created to influence our inquiry.1