Following inspector general’s resignation, city attorney, police raid offices of remaining OIG employees

In a move eerily similar to the recent hostile takeovers of federal offices by the Trump Administration, the City of Atlanta Department of Law carried out a raid of the once-independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) this week following former-Inspector General Shannon Manigault’s resignation on Monday, according to multiple sources in and close to the OIG’s office who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by city officials. One source said, “It’s a full city takeover of the office. And no one’s around to stop it.”

City Attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker claimed to have terminated the contract of the independent legal counsel the OIG’s governing board hired on Feb. 13. She visited the OIG’s office suites under armed protection from the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and seized OIG investigative materials and devices.

Perkins-Hooker confiscated 15 “spy pens” from the OIG and said that video captured by the spy pens would be destroyed. She also requested copies of the first page of subpoenas from the OIG’s office and instructed Shelby Williams, the acting head of the OIG, not to “communicate with any attorney nor Ms. Manigault regarding this request or the office’s operation.”

The city attorney also demanded that OIG employees surrender any city-issued firearms they may have. Williams denied that the OIG investigators were ever issued any firearms. After visiting Williams’s office on Feb. 19, Perkins-Hooker acknowledged the same via email. 

“The continued, systemic efforts to demonize and destroy the integrity of this office and its staff willfully jeopardizes our lives, abrogates our employee rights, and tramples on the facts,” Williams wrote to Perkins-Hooker Thursday afternoon. “It is unwarranted and unmerited.”

The City’s Department of Law appears poised to seize control of the OIG’s website, which operates independently of the City of Atlanta’s domain under a separate contract. Perkins-Hooker demanded OIG provide a copy of the contract with the company that maintains the office’s website, which she said “may not be compliant with City rules regarding access being mandated by [the Department of Atlanta Information Management].”

In addition to the website contract, Perkins-Hooker demanded a copy of the OIG’s contracts over $10,000.

OIG’s independent counsel demands city attorney “cease-and-desist”

Perkins-Hooker notified attorney James Radford that his contract to serve as independent counsel for the OIG was terminated, effective Wednesday. She told him, “The City of Atlanta will not be paying you for any services that you are providing under your previous contract.”

The OIG’s governing board had approved retaining Radford to defend the OIG against allegations of improper subpoena issuance under the tenure of then-Inspector General Manigault. On Feb. 3, Perkins-Hooker released a public letter accusing Manigault of violating state law by issuing subpoenas to financial institutions with instructions not to notify the account holder. The OIG governing board determined that the city attorney’s office, which usually represents the city in legal matters, had a conflict of interest and could not represent the OIG. 

Radford’s termination would mean the OIG and Manigault would be without legal counsel to defend against the allegations in Perkins-Hooker’s public letter and a federal lawsuit filed against the office over the subpoenas. During Monday’s press conference where Manigault announced her resignation, Radford disagreed with the city attorney’s interpretation and argued that the OIG did not violate the law by issuing those subpoenas. Radford wrote to Perkins-Hooker Thursday afternoon: “I respectfully reject your statement that my firm’s representation is terminated,” Radford said. He also demanded that Perkins-Hooker cease and desist communicating with the OIG, citing the Georgia Rules of Professional Responsibility, the ethical rules prohibiting Georgia attorneys from conversing with represented parties without their attorney present.