With her boss vanquished, and still feeling the sting of bitter defeat, a deputy to then-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes issued detailed instructions for shredding documents before the new man took over, according to a memo obtained by The Post.
Six weeks before staffers for victorious Ken Thompson moved in — and just months before scandal threatened Hynes’ 24-year legacy — the outgoing DA’s chief assistant, Amy Feinstein, sent an e-mail to staffers ordering them to destroy personal and case-related documents.
While it’s unclear if the directive violated any laws, the memo and its timing are raising questions in the wake of investigations into Hynes’ alleged use of public funds to pay a political consultant.
“All case and investigative files MUST be sent to the appropriate file room for proper archiving and/or secure destruction,” the Nov. 13, 2013, memo instructs. “Exhibits, evidence and grand jury minutes (whether attached to a case file or not) cannot be just thrown out. No exceptions.”
Thompson has said he was flabbergasted by all the shredded material he encountered on his first day in office, Jan. 1.
“I came there and it was bags of shredded documents.
Maybe they just were trying to spring-clean for me,” he said sarcastically.
Thompson — who forced Feinstein out when he took over — said his office would look for electronic backups of anything that might have been destroyed.
“We’ll find out,” he said.
It’s been all downhill for Hynes since his loss to Thompson.
As several of Hynes’ murder convictions were overturned, authorities began investigating whether he used some of $1.1 million in asset-forfeiture money to pay a political consultant for work, including on Hynes’ failed re-election bid.
The probe focuses on 6,000 subpoenaed e-mails exchanged among Hynes, a judge, p.r. consultant Mortimer Matz and others in the 18 months before the election.
The investigation is also looking into whether Hynes used his official DA e-mail account for campaign purposes and whether he received political advice from a sitting New York state Supreme Court justice.
Hynes’ lawyer, Robert Schwartz, did not return a call for comment on the shredding. He has denied any wrongdoing on the part of his client regarding the alleged misuse of funds.
Feinstein did not immediately return a call for comment.
Additional reporting by Leonard Greene
Update: The article accurately described the contents of an e-mail by former ADA Amy Feinstein, including instructions to shred. Counsel for the City and for Feinstein have since said that the email was a routine administrative memo calling for shredding of certain non-essential documents and the preservation of others and is not in any way improper.
Law Department spokeswoman Kate O’Brien Ahlers said: “The memorandum was plainly intended to ensure that employees in the DA’s Office follow normal document and evidence preservation procedures and cannot fairly be read to instruct the improper destruction of documents.”