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After seeking DOJ review, Soto, Sobel launch their own probe into attorney firings

Posted Aug 4, 2011 by Catherine Whittenburg, Tallahassee bureau

Updated Aug 4, 2011 at 12:23 PM

Two Democratic lawmakers continue to pound state Attorney General Pam Bondi with questions and records requests concerning her dismissal of two foreclosure fraud investigators in May.

Yesterday, state Rep. Darren Soto and Sen. Eleanor Sobel asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the forced resignations of attorneys June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards. Critics have suggested the firings were political because Clarkson and Edwards were investigating at least one company, Lender Processing Services, that contributed to the state GOP and several GOP candidates, including Bondi.

Bondi denies that politics played any role and said she stands by the decision, which she has attributed to senior managers in her office. But she has acknowledged her office’s lack of documentation about the terminations and has asked the inspector general in state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater’s office to review the situation.

Today, Soto and Sobel said they have launched their own investigation, which could create new headaches for Bondi and possibly even Gov. Rick Scott. The Democrats are pointing now to possible connections between the attorneys’ ouster, former AG special counsel Joe Jacquot’s new job at Lender Processing Services and another LPS executive who previously worked for Solantic, a former health care company of Gov. Rick Scott. Soto and Sobel are seeking information as well about Provest, a Tampa-based mortgage servicing company that Edwards and Clarkson were also investigating.

Records the lawmakers are requesting from Bondi today include memos, letters, Blackberry PINs and text messages between LPS, Provest, Jacquot and senior managers in Bondi’s office.