Philly top prosecutor suspends law license, for now

PHILADELPHIA >> Philadelphia’s top prosecutor said Friday he is voluntarily suspending his law license but plans to remain in office while he fights a federal bribery and extortion case.

District Attorney Seth Williams said he will stay in the $175,000-a-year post in an administrative role.

He appeared in court to meet a Friday deadline to hire a lawyer despite financial problems at the heart of the two-year FBI probe. Williams had declined to seek court-appointed counsel after the indictment last week.

Criminal lawyer Thomas Burke, a former colleague at the city prosecutor’s office, signed on to the case and quickly denied that Williams had sold his office.

Williams, 50, is accused of taking more than $100,000 in cash and gifts from two businessmen in exchange for favors. The two-term Democrat, known for a high-pro- file social life about town, has said he got into financial problems after a divorce.

“Not one single case has been compromised,” Burke said. “I don’t think there’s any meeting of the minds. Whatever Business Owner One and Two (in the indictment) thought, that may have been in their minds, it was never in Williams’ mind.”

Williams is charged with promising to help a businessman’s brother seek a California liquor license despite a felony tax conviction and to help a second businessman, who made frequent trips to the Middle East, bypass secondary screening at Philadelphia International Airport.