“You have to look for corruption to find it.  It doesn’t walk in the door.”

Those words of remarkable common sense were spoken by Patricia Ferrick, the Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven, Connecticut, FBI Division in  a New Haven Register article headlined New head of FBI in Connecticut to target corruption.

SAC Ferrick’s professional background, first with NYPD and then her assignments with the FBI, has clearly sharpened her focus on corruption.   It appears that Deirdre Daly, the Acting US Attorney for the District of Connecticut, has a shared commitment to investigating and prosecuting criminal conduct, including public corruption.

In contrast, look at the backgrounds of Mary F. Rook, SAC of the Salt Lake City FBI Division (responsible for Idaho), and Wendy J. Olson, US Attorney for the District of Idaho. 

Then compare the structure of the Criminal Division in the US Attorneys’ respective offices.

Here is a link to the Criminal Division of the Connecticut US Attorney’s office.  Notice that it has a unit called the Financial Fraud and Public Corruption Unit.

Here is a link to the Criminal Division of the Idaho US Attorney’s office.  Try to find any reference to “public corruption” in it.  There isn’t any — anywhere.  Now, that does not mean that the US Attorney for the District of Idaho would automatically decline to prosecute a public corruption case presented to her by the feds.  At least, I hope it doesn’t mean that.

But what it does strongly suggest is that the US Attorney for the District of Idaho isn’t looking for corruption.  Maybe she’s waiting for it to walk in the door.  If so, she’s got a long wait.  If Idaho’s US Attorney Olson has sent an implicit or explicit message to the federal agencies that she is not interested in corruption cases, it’s a safe be that the agencies aren’t going to spend much time and effort building cases likely to be declined.

Maybe US Attorney Olson and SAC Rook should take a lesson from US Attorney Daly and SAC Ferrick:  So look, already!