With harsh words for prosecutors, a federal judge in San Francisco dismissed a foreign bribery case on Friday, calling it the most “misguided prosecution” he’d seen in 50 years of criminal practice.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, himself a former federal prosecutor, sparred with the government attorneys on the case, asking why the U.S. attorney’s office had pursued charges against three non-U.S. citizens whose alleged misdeeds took place entirely abroad.
“If you’re not addressing crime in the Northern District of California, you’re not doing your job,” Breyer said, according to a transcript of the April 17 hearing. Breyer said the prosecution “brings into serious question the manner in which decisions are made by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California.”