Lawyer questions FBI’s motive in raid
A lawyer for Dannenbaum Engineering is questioning whether an FBI raid this week of several of the firm’s offices was a publicity stunt.
Federal agents descended Wednesday on the Houston, Laredo, San Antonio and McAllen offices of Dannenbaum Engineering, a locally based firm headed by prolific political donor and former University of Texas System Regent James Dannenbaum.
FBI officials would not comment on the nature of their investigation into Dannenbaum Engineering, one of the state’s premier firms for infrastructure planning and design.
‘Troubling questions’
In a statement released Friday, Joel Androphy, counsel for Dannenbaum Engineering, accused an “FBI spokesperson” of referring to public safety threats as a way to up the media coverage of the incident. He later clarified he was referencing a statement published Wednesday in the San Antonio Express News from FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee, in which she told the public there were no public safety threats in the locations the FBI was raiding.
“That’s not an appropriate remark to make,” Androphy said later to the Chronicle.
Androphy also questioned whether federal employees gave sensitive investigative information to news outlets. He added the firm will consider asking for an investigation and federal ethics probe into possible leaks.
“The FBI raids on the company offices raise some troubling questions about the government’s conduct and intentions in this evolving situation,” Androphy wrote in the statement. “The FBI raids appear to have been orchestrated by the government for maximum news coverage in at least four Texas news media markets.”
Not ‘leaked,’ FBI says
A statement issued Friday from the San Antonio FBI office said while it is standard policy for the agency to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, FBI and Department of Justice policy allows limited disclosure of information for legitimate law enforcement and public safety purposes.
Information about law enforcement activity at Dannenbaum Engineering offices was not “leaked” or released proactively, the statement said. “Rather, it was carefully and thoughtfully provided in response to specific inquiries, some identifying concerns from the community that the ‘evacuation’ of public buildings, and the presence of the FBI, may indicate a public safety threat,” the statement said.
Androphy is a legal analyst for ABC13, the news outlet that appears to have been the first to report about the raid in the Houston area. Agents took control of Dannenbaum Engineering’s building at 3100 West Alabama on Wednesday morning and told employees to leave.
Androphy declined to comment on any connections between his role at ABC13 and his statement about possible leaks.