Thursday, September 15, 2022

Death of Earl Silbert (9/15/22)

The Washington Post on 9/14/22 has a long Obituary here (pdf here) on the death of Earl Silbert on 9/6/22.  Earl Silbert became a prominent DOJ Tax alumnus after leaving the Tax Division because of his role as prosecutor with the D.C. U.S. Attorney Office for the District of Columbia upon the arrest and prosecution of the Watergate Burglars before the responsibility for that matter was passed to Archibald Cos, the special prosecutor.

According to my database, Earl served in the Criminal Tax Section from 1960 to 1961 and then in DOJ Tax Appellate from 1961 to 1964.

There is an oral history web offering on Earl by the Historical Society of District of Columbia Circuit, here.  That page identifies a later stint in DOJ:

In 1969, Earl returned to the Department of Justice for a brief period of time in the Office of Criminal Justice. While there, Earl worked on the Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970 that created the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

I joined DOJ Tax Appellate in 1969 and became hallway friends with Earl and his sidekick, Carl Rauh (their offices were just down the hall). Both of them were class acts. I knew that they were working on important stuff at the time and was always pleased when I could engage them in discussions.  They later formed a law partnership together.

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