AUSA Hammered Over Real Estate Biz Email

BALTIMORE (CN) - A federal prosecutor who moonlights as a real estate broker used her government email account to malign a man as a fraudster in an email to a business partner.

The four-page complaint Harold Reznick filed in circuit court is silent as to why Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Smith accused him of committing fraud.

Reznick, of Bethesda, says only that Smith moonlights as a licensed real estate broker and was acting "outside the scope of her duties as a federal prosecutor" when she sent the email that mentioned him on July 4, 2014, from her account with the U.S. Department of Justice.

A copy of the email, sent to a man whom Reznick did not name as a party to the action, appears as exhibit A in the June 22 suit.

An Internet search shows that recipient is a real estate lawyer with the D.C. firm Covington & Burling.

"Rez believes he has gotten away with our $95,000," Smith allegedly wrote.

Request a meeting with the man she was writing "to discuss our options," Smith noted that she was particularly outraged "given the life long relationship between Rez and my dad," the email shows.

"In my world, Rez committed fraud," she wrote, according to the exhibit. "At the very least, theft."

Smith allegedly predicted that the attorney whom she was emailing would not want to be involved in the "unpleasant" matter, the email shows.

"But $95,000 is a lot of money and you are involved," the email says. "You are in the middle."

The email closes with an allusion to Smith's "position in the Washington real estate market."

"You wanted to do the right thing," she allegedly wrote. "We are counting on you to continue to do the right thing. Please let me know."

Reznick wants punitive damages for defamation. He is represented by Jonathan Azreal of Azreal, Franz, Schwab & Lipowitz.

Neither Smith and nor Reznick's attorneys have returned requests for comment.

The Justice Department honored Smith with the Gary Jordan Award last month, a distinction "presented annually to an assistant U.S. attorney for exemplary performance that demonstrates the highest traditions of the office: integrity, ingenuity, dedication to public service and fairness."

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit