Jed M. Silversmith Joins Blank Rome (630/14)

From the press release at Philly.com, here.

Blank Rome L.L.P. has hired Jed M. Silversmith as of counsel in the white-collar defense and investigations group in the firm's Philadelphia office. He joins the firm from the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division, where he served as a trial attorney prosecuting criminal tax cases in federal courts throughout the United States. He also is a former trial attorney for the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Note that the picture beside this blurb is not Jed's.

Jed's Blank Rome bio and real picture is here.

Johnnie Walters' Death (6/26/14)

Johnnie Walters died Tuesday, 6/24/14.  Johnnie was formerly AAG Tax and, thereafter, Commissioner of Internal Revenue.  His big claim to fame was, as Commissioner, ignoring the Nixon White House insistence that the IRS use its powers to go after perceived enemies.

There will be several obituaries and I will link some of them.

• NYT here.
• GreenvilleOnline here.

Johnnie was a good man.

A little personal anecdote.  Johnnie came to NYU to interview students for positions at DOJ Tax.  I interviewed and arranged a date to come to DC for further interviews.  I showed up at Guy Tadlock's office, but was met wtih the question "Why are you here. We've already decided to make you the offer."  Of course, no one told me.  So, they let me wander the halls of Justice (you could do that in those days) and then leave without further ado.