It's Nightside with Dan Ray. I'm w b Zkoston's new radio.
Welcome back everyone. This is the nine o'clock hour.
We will be taking phone calls with my guests, but we probably aren't going to take phone calls until nine thirty, so just as a courtesy, if you want to call earlier, you ken. If you prefer to wait, that's okay as well. My guest is the newly appointed United States Attorney from Massachusetts, Leah Foley. Leah, thank you very much for being here tonight.
I've interviewed a few US attorneys in my career here on Nightside, but it is always a special honor and privilege to speak with the United States Attorney from Massachusetts.
Welcome, thank you very much, thank you for having me.
I tell my friends that I think that the most important law enforcement officer in the car Wealth of Massachusetts is not the Attorney General, but is the United States Attorney. I'm sure that there would be those in the attorney in the Attorney General's officer might disagree, but you have an incredibly important job. How large is your office these days? How many attorneys and staff will you oversee in this position?
So we have about two hundred thirty somewhat employees in the office, over one hundred criminal division attorneys and about twenty five civil division attorneys.
And that's a pretty good sized law office.
You have been You are not appointed out of the blue.
You have been here in the US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts for some time now. Just a little bit about your background before we get into some of the issues. I know that you're a graduate of loyal In Law School. You have a Bachelor of Wrought degree English philosophy in French. You didn't take the easy subjects like I did at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and also a Master of Laws degree from from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Very impressive resume. How long have you been up here in New England.
I first arrived in New England in October, I know, exactly October thirtieth of two thousand and five, after the birth of my first son.
Wow, no, it's okay.
That's what I started in the office in January of two.
Thousand and six.
And well, that's close to twenty years. And you have been in leadership in this office for some time. Obviously, you're in the top spot right now tell us about some of the positions of leadership, and because I think it will foreshadow the interest that we're going to talk about, that will probably typify your time as US.
Aturned seven, two thousand and six. Until about twenty twelve,
twenty thirteen, I was on the line. I was first in major crimes for about a year and a half and then I transferred to the Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit, and and then the twenty twelve twenty thirteen I took on the responsibility of being the Regional director for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which in government parlances osad F, and in that role, I was the coordinator of all of the federal drug trafficking investigations that were
being conducted in the New England region. And I also became the lead Strikeforce attorney for the Boston Strikeforce, which is a federal task force compromise comprised of FBI DEA, HSI atf I r S and numerous local and state task force officers who are deputized to work on the federal investigations.
Impressive resume. You guys have acronyms for everything, by.
The way, I know, so annoying I know, no, no, no, I'm.
Only teasing you.
So.
So you received your appointment on January twenty first, and shortly thereafter you held a news conference which a lot of people. It was the first impression, and if the first impression, if you only get one chance to make a first impression, as they say, you had the opportunity to make a great first impression. This was a huge drug raid, arrests gang members up in the Lawrence Lowell
haveoral Areaario's reign of terror. Again, I know you've talked about it, and I know it's a pending case so you can't get into.
A lot of it.
But in terms of the news conference, there were twenty two people and amongst them there were allegations besides you know, gang membership and drug dealing and all of that. Six murders and eleven attempted murders. I mean, talk about heavy duty.
This is pretty heavy duty stuff.
For a long time, my office has our gang unit, as I will call it, because the acronym is probably even more annoying than these upline. They have always done a tremendous job in working with local and federal law enforcement officers and district attorney offices across the commonwealth and identifying transnational organized gangs who are just wreaking havoc on communities and making it so unsafe for communities to operate
in a day by day basis. People are afraid for their kids to walk to the school bus because gangs were reigning on the streets and firing at each other for the most ridiculous, petty reasons. And we partnered with our locals to put an end to it and to identify the most dangerous individuals who were involved in these gangs and take out their leadership.
How how important in your opinion is partnership between not only you know, federal law enforcement, but state local law enforcement.
None of us can do our jobs without each other. We partner every single day with the local and state law enforcement officers and troopers.
And.
No single agency can do its job, not FBI, not DEA, not ATF without the partnership at the Massachusetts State Police, and without the partnership with all of the police offices in this commonwealth.
As you know, there's.
You're in Massachusetts, and when we get back, I'd like to talk about how you're going to try to forge relationships with people who are also in law enforcement or in government here in Massachusetts who might see the world a little differently, and I'd like to talk about that.
That'll be interesting.
Will here again.
We won't take calls until nine thirty six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty if you want to get on a little early. My guest is Leah Foley. She is the United States Attorney for Massachusetts and she has now been in the office just a little over a month. And having spoken with her this afternoon really for the first time, I think she's and you look at this rest she's very ready for this job, I think the most important law enforcement job in the state and the Carmwalth of Massachusetts.
Back on nightside right after this, bonded to have as a guest Leah Foley, the new recently appointed United States Attorney for the Calmwalth of Massachusetts, and we are talking about her priorities and what she is concerned about.
One of the things that.
You will have to do is deal you're the appointee of President Trump, who has made very clear what his position is towards things like illegal immigration, et cetera. And we have some political leaders here in Massachusetts who probably see things somewhat differently. How difficult do you think is it going to be for you to interact with people who maybe are not lawyers. In some cases, maybe they might be lawyers, but they do not probably have the prosecutorial mindset.
And I think most.
Folks in the US Attorney's Office have the idea that use the office and use the law to get people who are dangerous off the streets and get civilians and people who are living by by the rules, allow them to have freedom twenty four to seven, to go to school, go to work, keep their kids safe. What sort of interactions do you think we are likely to see between federal agencies and state and local police agencies.
What do you hope for and how do you hope to accomplish that?
So I would like to start by saying, like we always try to find common ground, and in the fall, even prior to the election, there seemed to be a consensus amongst politicians on both sides, Republican and Democrats, that people who are in this country illegally, who have committed crimes should be removed from the United States, and that consensus, you know, however, we ended up there there had been mistakes that had been made and it ended up that everyone seemed to be on the same page, and so
we would like to stay on that same page and work to continue to build collaborations and more consensus in that we target the people who everyone seems to agree and at least the federal government has prioritized as being right for removal, and those are the people who are in this country illegally, who have committed crimes. And the focus of ICE and HSI up till now has been on identifying, locating, and removing those individuals who make our
communities unsafe. And I hope that you know, unfortunately that is a very long list, but that is the group that right now, the agents who are on the streets every single day trying to make our community safer, our targeting. And so I say that everyone in the Commonwealth should be grateful for the hard work that these men and women are doing every day, not to promote a political ideology, but simply to make our community safe.
Leads me to two questions.
Obviously, as I'm sure you know, the Boston Mayor, Michelle wou has been summoned to Washington and buy a House committee to talk about this very subject. Homeland Security Director
Holman has said that he's soon coming to Boston. How much do you feel you're going to find yourself involved in that or can you sort of remove yourself from that apparent fight that's going on between you know, Tom Holman and officials at least in Boston, or do you see yourself that you have a role where maybe you can mediate this and get everybody on the same page.
So ICE is an independent in law enforcement arm and they have their own priorities and they focus on their mission. We support their mission, which is when there are identified people in this country illegally to our subject to deportation, we facilitate the court hearings or we bring the appropriate charges that are warranted for that particular arrest or detention. Mayor lou is a polished politician. She will be appearing on Capitol Hill. It'll be interesting to see what kind
of questions she's posed and answers she gives. But I don't believe any of these challenges or attacks or out of animosity. They are simply coming from our federal government to try to sway all local, state, federal politicians to get on the same page, which is we are trying to work together to promote public safety.
All right, So this leads me to one separate final question on this, and then I'm going to move on. We talked about this last night. There was above the full piece of the Boston Globe yesterday by Sean Cotter, who's spoke about and if you read it, great, If you didn't, that's okay. Talked about how there was different points of view that when someone is taken into custody and are here illegally, particularly if they have been charged with a serious crime, there's sort.
Of the chicken and egg story.
What takes precedent deportation or prosecution, particularly if it's a serious crime of violence against a US citizen or for that matter, someone who's not a US citizen, to simply deport them without prosecuting them here and confining them here they you know, My view is they should pay their price here and not be deported, immediately serve the sentence, and then be deported. I'm just curious where you would
stand on that. And in terms of the prosecution of someone who's here illegally and is then ultimately convicted of a serious violent crime.
All right, So you talked about two parties involved in that decision, people who have made arrests and people who have the mission of removing dangerous criminals. The party you've left out are the judges who decide whether a person
should be held or released. And there are times where not commenting on any specific case whatsoever, because I did not read that article, but if BPD makes an arrest, Suffolk brings the defendant into an arraignment, they ask for detention, and a judge releases the person and they're charged with a serious crime, whether it's drug trafficking, an armed robbery, a gun offense. And I also knows that this person
is here illegally. They have of their mission is to protect Americans, and if a judge releases that person onto the streets, then I says no, like they have no choice. They are going to do what is best for the community, which is to detain this person who is here illegally, and they can only hold that person so long because of resources, And so then they're faced with, you know, the choice, do we release them back onto the streets, which they don't believe is safe for the community, or
do they remove them? And so it's a complicated and again I believe that if there was more collaboration and collaboration, then possibly we could work to reduce these instances where, you know, ICE is made to look like the bad person because they're removing someone who is a danger to the community because that person is not being held and it's really not their fault and it's and it's you know, for a host of reasons. A judge might have some
reason to want to release this person. But in this it's so fast paced and you're making decisions, you know, on the fly a lot of times, but based on factual information that you have. This person has a prior conviction, this person failed to report for an ICE meeting in order to you know, litigate their status to be here. There's so many variables in moving parts that the ICE agents really their sole responsibility is to remove people who
are danger to the community. And some people might argue, well, look at all these other factors that make them not a danger, but they don't have the opportunity to reflect on that. They know what they know and they act in the best of the interests of the community.
Well said I guess the US attorney Lea Foley. I got a couple of other questions, and then we're going to go to phone calls. So if you want to join us folks six one, seven, two, five, four to ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty, we'll be back with the new US Attorney, Lea Foley. Your calls and questions, more questions from me as well. Right after the break, we're talking with US Attorney Leah Foley. Lea,
I just want to change topics for one second. There's a there's a big criminal case going on that is a is a state prosecution, not a federal prosecution. It's the Karen Read case. I'm sure you have familiar with it. And apparently there have been some reporting that the US Attorney's office has closed an investigation into that case, and there's some suggestions that that there were even maybe officials in your office. Of course, you're the top official in
your office. Can you tell us what the status at all or if there even is an investigation that has that has been conducted regarding this case.
So I'm bound by d o J rules that prohibit me from confirming or denying the existence for the federal engation investigation, and that's just the rule. So I can't confirm, but I can say it would not be unusual for us to speak with our partners or law enforcement to law enforcement partners about investigations, so it.
Would not be you said. I think you said it would not be unusual, correct, I just want to make sure I heard it correctly.
When we are involved in an investigation with partners in local law enforcement or other federal agencies, it is not unusual for us to speak about investigations.
Okay.
And then what I'd like to do is go to phone calls and I'm going to ask my listeners, my callers to ask questions. We're really not looking for speeches. If you want to wish the new US attorney, you know, good luck in her work. The one thing which I wanted to mention was I heard a story today, and
I don't know if this is well. I think it's true that in some parts of the country, some of the people who perceive themselves as working to protect the deportation of illegal immigrants have actually begun putting up posters of ICE officers with their names and addresses and home phone numbers. Have you heard of this going on specifically in southern California.
I have heard about it, and I find it to be despicable. It's targeting members of law enforcement community who are charged with doing a job, for upholding the laws of the United States, and to intimidate them to not do their jobs. And I find that I don't find there to be any justification for that and no excuse for it.
Would that be tolerated in this?
Is there any sort of a I'm sure that the ACLU will say, Oh, that's just the matter of speech. Putting up people's names and addresses. Uh, you know, it's basically outing people, if you will. I think the term is called doxing, if I'm not mistaken right, And I'd.
Say that a few years ago, when other groups were putting the names and home addresses for abortion doctors online and making that public, I don't think the ACLUS stood up for them.
Yeah, you do.
Not try to incite violence. It is it is inexcusable just to promote a political ideology.
Perfect.
Let's go to a phone call. It's going to start off with Justin in Marlboro. Justin, you were first tonight with Leofold, the US attorney from Massachusetts.
Go right ahead, Justin, what's your question or compa Hello?
US attorneys. I wana thank you for being an attorney, because this seems a good job that you may feel like sisifus and I wish you the best. And I wanted to just make one observation. This is the biggest court case that Kel and me case in Soco and Vendetti one hundred years ago, and the d A. Morsy has never gone into the courtroom. It seems very odd.
Yeah, again, Justin, I know you've hung on a long time.
I've asked that question, and I don't think that that the US attorney is comfortable in going down any line of questioning.
To be honest with.
You, I just wanted to I just want to make observation.
Yeah, I will say that the district attorneys can go into court rooms and sometimes they don't go into court rooms. I've covered a lot of trials and in my career, so I don't read anything into that, but you certainly can if you would like.
Thanks, Justin. I appreciate your call.
Thank you.
Thanks to talk to you soon. Let me go next to Kelly down to the Cape in Harwich. Kelly, you're next on night side.
I'm ganically Kerry.
Hi, Kelly, how are you say? How to US attorney Fowld I know to me Kerrie Kerrie, Okay, well it's come up. It's no problem, Kerrie. I'm sorry it is written as Kelly, but it's Kerry. Go right ahead, Kerry wish your question of comments for the US attorney.
Well, congratulations, madam attorneys US attorney. How do you deal with a local ring of terror? Do you take referrals from private citizens? Or I have grown up that chain of command as far as I can get, including and not limited to Governor Healy. I'm not getting what I need done? How can I get you involved? At one point, I believe her name was attorney US attorney Courtese Courtes.
I don't remember her last name exactly, but I did get an opportunity to speak to her and she get know about this case in ut And let me.
Ask you this carry. Is this a civil case or a criminal case? In your opinion? Both both? Okay?
While I can say that we receive cases through our law enforcement partners, which are either local, state or federal investigators, and so I would just refer you to them. They are the ones to investigate cases, and then we are the ones who joined the investigation and prosecute cases if there are violations of federal law.
Oh glare while you're tapping. There's all kinds of things, cyber.
You know.
The thing is, I think, Carrie, Carrie, I don't know that we can litigate that here. Uh now, I understand if you want to call me off ear sometime I'll be happy to try to guide you or direct you in a way that it might get you.
On the right track.
Okay, okay, great, thank you so much.
All right, thanks, Gerry, have a great night. Let me get one more call in here before the break. Let me go to Bill and Lawrence. Bill, you were next on Nightside. Go right ahead, US attorney Lea Foley, go right ahead.
Bill, Hi, good evening, Dan, thanks again for a wonderful show as usual. Welcome madam attorney. Good luck or as we say, Lawrence, well, I mean you can have your hands full. It's a breath of fresh air seeing this new administration put a US attorney and that already is generating a lot of press releases. And I subscribe to
your daily newsbort. Is there any way I'll cut right to the chase we had recently, Lawrence, and it happens quite a bit there was a fentonyl mill, a major fidel mill was busted, and it was in your news reports. The local paper parrots it and waters it down and really doesn't write the whole story. That's why I'm grateful for your news items that you put out, because now they're very thorough. But one thing there'sn't in there. If there's a fentanyl mill next door to my house, how
come I can't find out what the address is. Families want to be safe and be protected, why don't they put the addresses of these really very criminal operations in the press releases so we can know and for our own safety, where these people are.
So I think Bill, you're talking about after some after an arrest have been made, after arrest have been made, and if you want the addresses, let me just make sure I understand this, that you want the addresses of the criminal defendants or the location where the crimes were allegedly committed in a press release.
Surely, in the case of a sentinel mill, which is a dangerous public a nuisance.
Okay, Okay, that's a legitimate question. It probably would be in the indictment. But the press release obviously is a synopsis of the indictment.
So yeah, I can say I appreciate that concern. I would have the same concern if I believe that something like that was going on next door to me in our cases. I guess until recently when I was prosecuting those types of cases. The addresses of the locations that were searched and where seizures were made are in the criminal complaint affidavit which is issued in support of the arrest warrants in the criminal complaint, and those are available
on the public docket. I believe that it probably doesn't go into the press release because they're trying to just condense a lot of information. But we can absolutely talk to the local police offer offers to try to figure out if there is a way to notify, you know, the people who abut these residences and places that are searched in case there are in any danger of inhalation of fentanyl, which we all know is quite dangerous.
The other option to Bill would be to talk to you the editor of your local newspaper and their reporters could could look at those documents, which are public documents, and make that that material available, you know, from a public document public documents, a public record, the local reporters or the regional reporters or the reporter for the Globe of the head could could do a little bit of legwork on that as well. That's another way to get at it.
Okay, Yeah, I understand what you're saying. Our local paper is non existent now, it's not even a daily anymore, and they really operate on press releases. They don't do any reporting whatsoever.
So well, okay, well, that's that's some suggestions at least.
I appreciate, madam attorney. Thank you, Thanks Bill.
Take a very quick break back.
But my guest, the US attorney from Massachusetts, Leah Foley, trying with US Attorney Leo Foley. Let's get back to the calls. Let me go to Kevin in Cambridge. Kevin, you were next on night's ide with US Attorney Leah Foley.
Go right ahead, Kevin, Good evening.
I I have a maybe an uncomfortable question, but I'm certain that she has anticipated it.
I'm just really.
Curious if you had been one of the prosecutors in the mayor Adams case, how you would have responded.
Yeah.
I don't think that hypothetical questions are really fear to any guests in a situation like this, Kevin, So, unless US attorney fully has some desire to answer that question, I'm going to strike it.
I'm not familiar with all of the facts that led to that case, and I continue to have trust in the Department of Justice to make the right decisions.
Or Kevin, good, try. I appreciate the Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Okay, you welcome. Let me keep going here. Let me go to a gene and average Gina looking for a question, not a speech.
Goright ahead, Gene, Hi, good evening.
Yep. I'm sorry. I have a few questions and things I wanted to say and not trying to make a speech, but I have to say them. So please try.
To go to the question, Gane, because I'm tight on time here.
Okay, Hi you, let's attorn it. Yep, thank you. Jan Well, I'm talking about the crime in Boston that I feel a lot of my friends feel, also people who work there that I know I feel that it's being ignored by the mayor and the police chief. People are afraid to walk the streets, afraid to walk to work, afraid to take the subway to work. You know, people you walk down the street, people are putting drugs in there
right there, Boston Common, Boilston Street, Tremont Street, downtown. They went on the stores with merchandise, stealing all the time. Nothing's done. There's some really been some really bad crimes.
Okay, So so those are you know, yeah, those are those are not federal crimes at this point, let's has to say you've raised an issue.
Gen Let's see what she says.
Go ahead, thank you.
Yeah.
I sympathize with what some members of our community in certain neighborhoods have to go through and to the extent that drug trafficking is contributing to these horroric crimes and
horrible circumstances. Undo what you live. Our office that is under our jurisdiction, and I can assure you that we are working to eliminate and all of the drug traffickers who are promoting these types of open air drug markets and selling drugs to vulnerable addicted people and just making lives like ruining the lives of the people in their communities. Those are your communities and you should not have to live under those certain things.
We just wanted someone to do something for a change, because Maywa was not interested.
Well any help that the federal government can continue to identify drug traffickers and take them off the streets. I guarantee you that is what we are going to.
Do in the clime makers, and we would like mister Holman to come to Boston all these communities.
Do you have another question? I gave you a chance for another question if you.
Don't know, But we would like to say, mister Holman, come and help us out because there's too much crime and too many criminals walking around. You can't even we Thank you for that comment, but thank you.
We're going to move on. Thank you very much, Thank you very much, appreciate you. Thanks. Let me go to Joe and Lynn. Joey next on, Nice, I go ahead.
Yea, thank you for taking my call. I hope that you attorney can help in this. What are you going to do if Michelle wou tries to keep this city as a sanctuary city and not let Tom Holman remove these illegal aliens, what are you, as an attorney going to do?
So?
We will continue to enforce federal law, and I have made it clear that anyone who tries to obstruct law enforcement officers from carrying out their their responsibilities and their duties. We will investigate and take action when necessary.
I hope you do, because mister Homer is coming to Boston soon. Thank you, Dan.
All right, Joe, appreciate you called the one area. If I got a couple of minutes left here it was attorney that I'd like to ask you about. Is obviously, seeing your background, I know what your concerns are about dismantling you know, organized crime, drug sells and and all of that.
But there's a couple of.
Other areas I think that that that you are concerned about. What what are the the other couple of areas that your office is going to focus on. I mean, obviously, the the arrest of this trinario however they pronounce it gang up in the you.
Know, Lawrence Lowell area has a tremendous has had a tremendous impact and will have a tremendous impact. That sent a great message. But what are the other.
I guess legs of of your administration that that you hope to stand upon when all.
Is said and done.
So our top priorities protecting the citizens of Massachusetts. And I know that might sound broad, but it's earnest, and we will put special emphasis on certain areas where predators are praying on the most vulnerable members of our communities, whether that is drug related violence, fraud, human trafficking. Obviously, we will continue to prioritize national security and the security
of the commonwealth and public corruption. You know, we really want the members of our community to be proud of the work that is being done, and we want them to respect the men and women who work tirelessly to protect our community. And unfortunately, you know that sounds like a lot.
But it's just we have units in this office that focus on all of those above mentioned crimes and offenses, and all of the units are working together in cohesively just to keep everyone safe and to make sure that the people in this commonwealth can have faith and trust in their public officials and elected officials, and in the men and women.
Who starve them.
My last question is when there is a presidential election, and I believe that all ninety two of the US attorneys that were US attorneys on January first, either will
have resigned or be asked to resign. What percentage of the professionals in the office remain, irrespective of whether it's a Republican administration in Washington or Democratic administration, that doesn't seem to me to be a lot of turnover, particularly in US Attorney's Office, no matter which party controls the executive branch.
I agree one percent. We are prosecutors, not politicians. No one signed up to be a prosecutor just in the Biden administration or the Trump administration or any other. I think I've gone through four different transitions and served under four different presidents, and we come to work every day to promote justice and that's not a political role, and
it's not a political job. And people every day in this office stand up on behalf of the United States, and that's on behalf of the entire United States, not just people in one certain party. And so I think, you know, there's some people always leave to go to other jobs, but it's rare that people on the line prosecuting cases, defending the United States in civil or criminal matters view their jobs as political in any way.
Leah Foley, thank you so much for your time tonight. I know it's a long day that you have, and to spend an hour with myself here on nightside and my listeners, I just can't tell much.
I appreciate it.
Best of luck as you take on this incredible responsibility and godspeed. I really thank you, and hopefully we can check back in perhaps in a few months and talk about some of the progress you will make.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely, I appreciate the opportunity.
Thank you absolutely, Thank you much.
US attorney Leah Foley, and I can't tell you how important it is, I think. And one of the things we do here on Nightside is get a public official like Leah Foley to spend an hour with us and to take questions.
So I want to thank all the callers for cooperating. And when we come back, we're going to talk about the US foreign policy.
It seems to be changing in Ukraine and there looks to be like some sort of an agreement believe it or not, between the Trump administration and President Zelensky.
We'll see. We'll talk about this on the other side of the ten o'clock News