Judge denies Fattah lawyers' bid to withdraw

A federal judge on Wednesday called U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah's decision to prioritize fund-raising for his reelection campaign above paying his lawyers "particularly unfair" but denied a request from his defense team to withdraw from his corruption case.

U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III said that though the lawyers had not been fully paid in months, they were aware of the time and financial commitments when they signed on to Fattah's case.

They ran a risk when they did not require the Philadelphia Democrat to pay their legal fees up front, Bartle wrote in an opinion. Allowing Fattah time to retain new counsel would likely delay his May 2 trial by months, the judge said.

"It is very late in the game for counsel to be seeking to pull out of this case," Bartle wrote, adding later: "This ship cannot be turned around easily."

The ruling appeared to lock Fattah's lawyers in the awkward position of working for free - at least for now - amid a dispute that has exposed the precarious financial position of the embattled 11-term congressman.

Accused of accepting a lobbyist's bribe and misusing grant money, campaign contributions, and charitable donations under his control, Fattah, 59, has struggled to balance what could be the most contentious reelection bid of his career with the cost of fending off a potentially career-ending indictment.

Fattah lawyers Kevin V. Mincey, Thomas O. Fitzpatrick, and Shabrei M. Parker declined to comment Wednesday.

Riley H. Ross III, a solo practitioner also attached to the case, said he and his colleagues would continue with their "zealous representation" of the congressman.

"We will continue to live up to our professional responsibilities as officers of the court," he wrote in an email.

The congressman has said he has paid more than $300,000 in legal fees since federal authorities began investigating him and his family members nine years ago. He did not return emails seeking a response to Bartle's ruling.

At a hearing Tuesday, Mincey told the judge that after an initial $100,000 deposit Fattah paid his firm in August, the congressman had missed several deadlines on the payment schedule he had agreed to follow.

As a small firm, Mincey said, he and his colleagues could not afford to continue floating Fattah's debts.

"That would literally crush our firm," Mincey told the judge. "There's no way we can maintain this situation."

Bartle, in his opinion Wednesday, was sympathetic to the lawyer's plight, but cited local court rules that require lawyers to see their cases through to completion, unless a judge allows them to back out.

"They clearly entered their appearances with their eyes open and knew that this was going to be an expensive and time-consuming matter," he wrote. "They do not and cannot claim surprise."

For his part, Fattah has maintained that he fully intends to pay his debts eventually.

But with four challengers to fend off in the April 26 Democratic primary, his need to raise campaign cash has never been more acute.

Federal filings show the congressman raised less than $10,000 in the three months after his July indictment, compared with the $69,000 and $72,000 he reported in the two previous quarters. As of October, his campaign was down to just $822, when cash and debts were tallied.

Early fund-raising for the legal defense fund Fattah launched in September was similarly anemic.

A Sept. 30 filing to the IRS reported the fund's balance at $9,000 and showed Fattah had previously lent it $85,000 from his own pocket and $5,000 from his political action committee.

On Tuesday, Fattah said he was confident that a larger law firm would be willing to take on his case and accept a delayed payment plan.

Bartle said in his opinion that he could revisit his decision should another firm step forward and convince him that it could meet the already-established timeline for trial.

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608 @jeremyrroebuck