---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-10-14
tags:
  - Person
  - Promis
  - Doj
  - Inslaw
  - Judge
  - BankruptcyCourt
  - Reappointment
  - AmericanUniversity
aliases:
  - George Francis Bason Jr.
  - George F. Bason
  - George F. Bason Jr.
  - George Francis Bason
  - George Bason
  - Judge Bason
summary: "George Francis Bason Jr. was the District of Columbia bankruptcy judge who ruled in 1987 that the Justice Department took INSLAW's PROMIS software by trickery, fraud and deceit, and whose non-reappointment prompted allegations of retaliation."
relations:
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[American University]]"
    role: "assistant professor, then associate professor of law"
    start: 1966
    end: 1972-06-30
    fn: 1
  - type: employed_by
    with: "[[United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia]]"
    role: "bankruptcy judge"
    start: 1984-02-08
    end: 1988-02-08
    fn: 2
  - type: participant_in
    with: "[[PROMIS Software Scandal]]"
    role: "presiding judge in the INSLAW adversary proceeding"
    start: 1987-06
    end: 1988-01-25
    fn: 3
---
George Francis Bason Jr. was a law professor at [[American University]] from 1966 to 1972 and a judge of the [[United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia]] from February 8, 1984, to February 8, 1988, filling the vacancy left by [[Roger Whelan]].[^1][^2] The two proceedings he presided over in the [[INSLAW]] case produced the most damaging judicial findings against the [[Department of Justice|DOJ]] in the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]].[^3] The [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit]] reversed the adversary ruling in 1991 on jurisdictional grounds.[^4]

### Career Before the Bench

Bason joined the law faculty of American University in 1966 as an assistant professor and became an associate professor in 1969. His reappointments carried favorable comments, and in the fall of 1970 the university's tenure committee voted to offer a one-year terminal contract in place of a recommendation for tenure, with no reasons formally communicated to him. His employment ended June 30, 1972. He sued the university for breach of contract in November 1973. After the trial court granted summary judgment to the university, the D.C. Court of Appeals, with [[Thomas Penfield Jackson]] as his counsel, reversed on April 24, 1980 and remanded for trial, and the parties then settled out of court.[^1][^5] A 1988 magazine profile described him as a Harvard Law School graduate and former law professor, and gave his age as 56.[^6]

An attorney directory lists bar admissions in North Carolina (1956), the District of Columbia (1958) and Maryland (1989), and places him after the bench in a bankruptcy practice in Bethesda, Maryland.[^7] He wrote the bankruptcy volume of West's Legal Forms (second edition, 1984).[^8]

### Early Rulings

In a July 17, 1987 letter to Attorney General [[Edwin Meese]] transmitting one of his orders, Bason pointed to the paragraph inviting the Attorney General "to designate an appropriate official outside" the department to deal with the case.[^9] On July 31, 1987, he denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the adversary proceeding, holding that a complaint may not be dismissed unless it appears "beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts which would entitle him to relief."[^10]

### The Independent Handling Proceeding (June 1987)

On February 25, 1987, INSLAW applied to the bankruptcy court for independent handling of its adversary proceeding, asking that the Department conduct the case "completely and entirely independent of any Department of Justice officials who are involved in the allegations." The petition charged that [[C. Madison Brewer]] was biased against the company.[^11] In March 1987 [[Bill Hamilton]] and [[Nancy Hamilton]] met [[Anthony Pasciuto]], deputy director of the [[Executive Office for United States Trustees]]. Pasciuto testified to the Senate subcommittee staff that he told them he had heard from the U.S. Trustee [[William White]] that the office's director, [[Thomas Stanton]], had called White repeatedly to express displeasure with his handling of the case and had pressured him to act against INSLAW. Nancy Hamilton's contemporaneous notes read "St call Wh & sd had to be convertd," while Pasciuto told the staff he did not remember using the word "convert."[^12]

[[Cornelius Blackshear]], the former U.S. Trustee for the Southern District of New York, testified in a March 25, 1987 deposition that White had told him Stanton thought the case should be converted or dismissed and wanted one of Blackshear's assistants detailed to Washington, and answered "Yes" when asked whether White had said he had received pressure from Stanton to have the case converted to Chapter 7. Within two days he signed an affidavit recanting that testimony, stating that after two telephone conversations with White he now recalled that no such discussion took place. White, Stanton and the assistant, Harold Jones, contradicted Pasciuto's account.[^13] The Senate subcommittee staff wrote that facts it obtained, including tape recordings of an American Bar Association conference session, "severely undercut the credibility of Blackshear's recantation."[^14] The Associated Press reported in May 1988 that the attorney for Pasciuto, Gary Simpson, quoted Blackshear in a March 17 letter to the Justice Department as saying, "I felt less people would be hurt if I just bailed out," and "I thought that by changing my story I would hurt less people." Ruling from the bench on June 12, 1987, Bason said, "I believe that Judge Blackshear's original testimony is accurate and his recanted testimony is inaccurate," and that "people do have a capacity to forget things when it is painful for them to remember, or maybe even inconvenient for them to remember."[^79]

At the close of the hearing in June 1987, Bason gave oral findings that Brewer had obtained a commitment from the Executive Office for United States Trustees to convert INSLAW's Chapter 11 reorganization into a Chapter 7 liquidation.[^15] The written findings of January 25, 1988 state that DOJ "unlawfully, intentionally and willfully sought to cause the conversion of INSLAW's Chapter 11 reorganization case to a Chapter 7 liquidation case without justification and by improper means."[^16] Bason found that Stanton had struck a bargain with Brewer under which Stanton would make efforts to liquidate the company, and that Brewer "sought and obtained assistance for his unlawful plan from Thomas Stanton, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees."[^17]

Deputy Attorney General [[Arnold Burns]] referred allegations of misconduct against Pasciuto to the [[Office of Professional Responsibility]] in July 1987, and on December 18, 1987 the office recommended that Pasciuto be fired. Its memorandum stated: "Mr. Pasciuto's recantation notwithstanding, Judge Bason relied on [Pasciuto's] testimony about his remarks at the breakfast meeting to support his conclusion that Mr. Stanton engaged in misconduct. We have found no evidence that this conclusion was at all correct."[^18] The Special Counsel's report states that the office recommended termination primarily because of Pasciuto's admitted decision to harm Stanton by any means possible, including providing false information to the Hamiltons.[^19] The Associated Press reported that Pasciuto, "on the verge of tears in Bason's courtroom," testified that he had made up the story because he was angry with Stanton about delaying his promotion.[^79] A House Judiciary Committee report states that Pasciuto recanted at trial under strong pressure from senior Department officials, and that his attorney wrote on March 17, 1988 that what Pasciuto had told the Hamiltons was true and that he had backed away at trial because Blackshear and White would not acknowledge the truth and Stanton was pressuring him over an appointment as an Assistant U.S. Trustee.[^20] The Office of Professional Responsibility reported on March 31, 1989 that Bason's independent-handling findings were "clearly erroneous" and that no evidence showed Department employees had tried to pressure White to convert the case.[^21]

### The Adversary Proceeding (September 1987)

After a two-week liability trial in July 1987,[^22] Bason ruled from the bench on September 28, 1987. The transcript of the ruling, reprinted in an appendix to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations staff study, records him stating that there were two major categories of findings, each standing independently of the other. The first was that Brewer, believing he had been wrongfully discharged by Hamilton and INSLAW, "developed an intense and abiding hatred for Mr. Hamilton and Inslaw" and applied for the project manager position in order "to vent his spleen against Inslaw." The second was that "the Department of Justice took, converted, stole, Inslaw's enhanced PROMIS by trickery, fraud, and deceit," and had used and continued to use the enhanced version in about 45 U.S. Attorney's offices, beyond the 20 in which it was entitled to use a different version.[^23]

In the same ruling Bason said that Brewer's subordinate [[Jack Rugh]] and the contracting officer [[Peter Videnieks]] "were infected with this poisonous attitude by Mr. Brewer and they aided and assisted him." He described the Department's stated concerns about INSLAW's financial viability as "a smoke screen," and said that once the Department obtained the proprietary enhancements it "engaged in an outrageous, deceitful, fraudulent game of cat and mouse, demonstrating contempt for both the law and any principle of fair dealing."[^24] Of the testimony of William Tyson that Brewer's attitude toward INSLAW was "positive, constructive and favorable in every way," he said "that is so ludicrous that there is no way that I can believe anything the man has to say."[^25] Of [[Stuart Schiffer]], with whom he had held an in-chambers discussion on the record, he said it was obvious from his demeanor that "the entire Department of Justice was in a completely defense attitude."[^26] Bason also observed that [[Lowell Jensen]] had acknowledged in deposition the general principle against hiring a person to supervise a contract with his former employer, without any sign that he saw its application to Brewer and INSLAW.[^27]

The written findings of January 25, 1988 state that Brewer "developed an intense and abiding hatred for Hamilton and INSLAW" and applied for the position "with the purpose of using that position to vent his spleen against INSLAW," and that Rugh and Videnieks "were infected by Brewer's poisonous attitude towards Hamilton and INSLAW, and they aided and assisted Brewer in his wrongful efforts to injure INSLAW."[^28] They describe the issues Brewer raised as forming "the basis for Brewer's effort to ruin INSLAW and to bring about DOJ's wrongful use of INSLAW's Enhanced PROMIS software."[^29] As the Special Counsel's report summarized the findings, Bason held that Brewer "devised and implemented a strategy to ruin Inslaw because of his intense hatred of Inslaw," and concluded that Jensen's biased attitude toward INSLAW contributed to the situation in which the company's complaints about Brewer and the administration of the PROMIS contract went unheeded.[^30]

On February 2, 1988, Bason ordered DOJ to pay INSLAW about $6.8 million in licensing fees and roughly $1 million in legal costs, and postponed a decision on punitive damages.[^31] He told a Barron's reporter that a few days before he left the bench he had restrained the [[Internal Revenue Service]] from going after the Hamiltons personally, by an order lasting ten days.[^32] The award came during the week before he left the bench.[^33]

### Non-Reappointment

Bason asked [[Patricia Wald]], chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, for reappointment by letter in May 1987, before the circuit had adopted a selection procedure, and in June 1987 the Circuit Executive sent the chief judges of the district court and the court of appeals a proposed procedure. Chief Judge [[Aubrey Robinson]] of the district court recommended four people for a merit selection panel: District Judge [[Norma Holloway Johnson]], who chaired it, Dean [[Jerome A. Barron]], [[Wesley Williams Jr.]] and [[Thomas C. Papson]]. Wald sent the invitations in the first week of August 1987, as testimony in the INSLAW case was concluding.[^34]

Before Bason's September 28 oral ruling, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia held an INSLAW file but did no substantive work on the case. [[Royce Lamberth]], then chief of its civil division and sworn in as a district judge on November 16, 1987, obtained a transcript of the oral ruling and gave it to Johnson, who circulated it to the panel; it was the only judicial opinion circulated. The Special Counsel recorded that Lamberth had heard about the ruling from an assistant in his division who had preceded Brewer as PROMIS project manager at the [[Executive Office for United States Attorneys]], and that the assistant U.S. Attorney who handled the government's bankruptcy cases told him the government would be better off if Bason were not reappointed. Three panel members told the Special Counsel that the panel discussed the ruling and agreed it should not influence their evaluation.[^35] Schiffer, a deputy assistant attorney general, said he had almost certainly revealed his displeasure with Bason to Lamberth by joking that Lamberth's office should take over the case, and that he never encouraged Lamberth to speak to the panel.[^36]

The panel invited bankruptcy practitioners to appear, and sixteen lawyers, including INSLAW's attorney [[Charles Work]], did so at a hearing on November 11, 1987. DOJ declined to appear.[^37] Roger Whelan, then a practicing bankruptcy attorney, told the panel by telephone that colleagues had complained that Bason was pro-debtor and slow. [[Charles Docter]], an INSLAW attorney, told the House Judiciary Committee that in July 1987 Whelan had complained about Bason's delay in ruling on a fee application and said Senior District Judge [[Irvin Gasch]] would organize opposition to his reappointment; Bason ruled on Whelan's application on July 17, 1987. Whelan acknowledged frustration over the delay and friendship with Gasch, and denied speaking to Docter or applying pressure.[^38]

The panel received twelve applications and found six finalists worthy of further consideration, Bason among them. After a second round of interviews, [[S. Martin Teel Jr.]], an attorney in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, received the most votes. On or about November 24, 1987, the panel sent the [[Judicial Council of the District of Columbia Circuit|Judicial Council]] a list of four names in order of preference, Teel first and Bason included.[^39] A confidential memorandum to Johnson dated December 8, 1987, unsigned and marked "read and destroy," described each finalist; the section on Bason included the phrases "inclined to make mountains out of molehills," "a pronounced and unrelenting reputation for favoring debtors," and "no inclination to come to grips personally with the management challenge posed by the terrible shortcomings of the Office of the Clerk of our Bankruptcy Court." The House committee reported that a judge and a panel member identified the author as another panel member, who denied writing it.[^40] Bason told the committee on July 22, 1992 that Judge Tim Murphy had served with Johnson on the D.C. Superior Court from 1970 to 1980 and had left the bench on April 15, 1985 to work for [[C. Madison Brewer]] as his assistant director on the Justice Department's PROMIS implementation.[^40]

In an October 29, 1987 memorandum, Schiffer wrote that Bason had scheduled the next INSLAW trial for February 2, 1988 and that "Coincidentally, it has been my understanding that February 1 [1988] is the date on which he [Bason] will either be reappointed or replaced."[^41] Deputy Attorney General Burns had earlier asked the Civil Division to "consider initiatives for achieving a more favorable disposition of this matter," and Schiffer had asked [[Michael Hertz]], director of the Department's Commercial Litigation Branch, to investigate disqualifying Bason.[^41] The Special Counsel reported that Johnson telephoned Schiffer, with whom she had shared an office as a young staff attorney at DOJ in the early 1960s, during the selection process to ask for his candid appraisal of two DOJ candidates on the panel's short list, one of them Teel. Schiffer told the Special Counsel that he advised her DOJ had a sensitive matter pending before Bason, that Johnson replied she did not want to hear about Bason, that he knew nothing about Teel, who worked in the Tax Division, and that he said nothing about Bason. The House committee had stated that it had no information that Johnson talked to Schiffer about INSLAW, Bason or the selection process; it did not interview Schiffer.[^42]

The Judicial Council, consisting of twelve active court of appeals judges and six district judges, met on December 15, 1987 and after about ninety minutes voted to recommend the first three names, Teel and Bason among them. Each finalist was interviewed by seven court of appeals judges, and on December 21, 1987 the judges of the court of appeals voted in person or by telephone; Teel "won by a substantial majority."[^43] Wald informed Bason on December 28, 1987 that he would not be reappointed.[^44] The district court's 1989 opinion dates the court of appeals' decision to January 11, 1988.[^45] A 1988 magazine article reprinted in the Senate staff study reported that only four of 136 federal bankruptcy judges seeking reappointment in the previous four years had been turned down, that the panel was headed by Johnson, "another former Justice Department lawyer," that Wald was "a former Justice Department employee," and that Washington attorneys called the action "shocking" and "eerie."[^46]

Teel served as bankruptcy judge in the District of Columbia from February 8, 1988 until his retirement on March 22, 2020.[^47] In a March 27, 1992 interview with House investigators, he said that before his February 1988 appointment he had been assistant chief of the Tax Division and had supervised the tax portion of both the UPI and INSLAW matters for the Department. He said the decision to ask the court to convert INSLAW's case from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 in 1987 originated with the Internal Revenue Service, not the Department, and he declined to give a sworn statement.[^48] The Senate staff described him as having "made a brief appearance in the INSLAW case on behalf of the IRS."[^49] The House committee described him as a Justice Department attorney heavily involved in the litigation of the INSLAW case, and Bason told the committee that Teel's selection rested on expertise in tax law and that his bankruptcy litigation experience was extremely limited.[^50] A fee claim in the INSLAW bankruptcy was later assigned to a Maryland bankruptcy judge because of Teel's recusal.[^51]

On January 12, 1988, Bason sent a fourteen-page letter to Wald with copies to every judge on the court of appeals, mostly addressing his qualifications and his administrative abilities, the lack of which he said was the only stated reason for the decision.[^52] The letter said that lawyers had suggested "a more sinister, hidden force" behind the decision, and that the Justice Department had undertaken "to influence the judicial selection process as a means of retaliation against me for my recent rulings."[^53] Bason later told the Special Counsel the "lawyers and others" were Nelson Deckelbaum, Marcie Docter and Nelson Kline, none of whom supplied any support for the suspicion.[^54] The [[Washington Post]] and the [[Legal Times]] reported the letter on January 18, 1988.[^55]

### Recusal Motion and the Suit Against Teel

In July 1987 Hertz advised that the facts did not support a legally sufficient case of bias, because the Department had no evidence of an extrajudicial source for what it viewed as Bason's incredible factual conclusions.[^56] On January 19, 1988, after the January 12 letter, the Department moved for Bason's recusal on the ground of bias. The motion relied on the letter, the press reports and an affidavit by Schiffer. The Special Counsel wrote that the letter supplied a satisfactory basis for the motion.[^57] Judge [[William Bryant, Jr.|William Bryant]] later wrote that the affidavit "contains no facts based on personal knowledge" and "recites the press accounts."[^58] Bason heard the motion on January 22 and denied it in a memorandum and order filed January 25, 1988.[^59]

The same day, Chief Judge Robinson denied the Department's application for a writ of mandamus directing Bason to recuse himself. Robinson wrote: "I can't see anything in this record that measures up to the standards that would be applicable to force another judge to take over this case."[^60] Bryant, on appeal, found "no basis in fact to support a motion for recusal."[^61]

On February 1, 1988, seven days before the expiration of his term according to the Special Counsel, Bason filed suit in the federal district court and moved for a temporary restraining order to enjoin Teel from being sworn in. The complaint incorporated the January 12 letter but did not otherwise allege that DOJ interfered with the appointment process. The suit was unsuccessful, and Bason left the bench on February 8, the date Teel's service began.[^62]

### Further Allegations Reported to the House Committee

Bason added details when he testified to and spoke with the House committee. He said that one of Hamilton's children overheard a DOJ attorney say at a March 1987 hearing "We've got to get rid of this judge." He said that [[Chris Welles]] of Business Week told him a high-level DOJ official boasted that DOJ was responsible for his non-reappointment; Welles told the Special Counsel he could not recall saying it and had no such source, and his published article stated that "[T]here is no evidence that Justice influenced the selection made by the Court of Appeals." Bason named former D.C. Superior Court judge [[Tim Murphy]], who had been Johnson's colleague on that court and who left it in 1985 to work for Brewer as assistant director on PROMIS implementation, as another possible channel to Johnson; Murphy told the Special Counsel he had no contact with her about the process.[^63]

Bason also reported hearing third-hand, from Kevin Reynolds, a former aide to Senator [[Christopher Dodd]], that someone at DOJ bragged that accomplishing his non-reappointment was "as easy as turning off a light switch," information Reynolds understood to come from Hamilton. Reynolds could not recall the expression. Hamilton wrote to the Special Counsel that former DOJ security officer [[Garnett Taylor]] knew that [[Anthony Moscato]], who was acting director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys in 1993, had played an affirmative role in denying the reappointment, and that his source was a senior U.S. government official whom he declined to identify. Moscato told the Special Counsel he had nothing to do with the selection of bankruptcy judges.[^64]

### Appeals

On November 22, 1989, Senior District Judge William Bryant affirmed the bankruptcy findings. He wrote that the record contained "convincing, perhaps compelling support for the findings set forth by the bankruptcy court."[^65] He reduced the compensatory award by $655,200, which he calculated as twelve percent of the license fees.[^66]

On May 7, 1991, the D.C. Circuit reversed, in an opinion by Circuit Judge [[Stephen F. Williams]] for a panel of Judges [[James L. Buckley]], Williams and [[Raymond Randolph]]. The court held that "the automatic stay does not reach the Department's use of property in its possession under a claim of right at the time of the bankruptcy filing." It held that "the bankruptcy court had no jurisdiction to hear the claims asserted under § 362(a)," reversed the district court, and remanded with directions "to vacate all orders concerning the Department's alleged violations of the automatic stay and to dismiss Inslaw's complaint against the Department."[^67] Rehearing and rehearing en banc were denied on July 12, 1991.[^68]

The House Judiciary Committee's 1992 conclusions state that the court of appeals "did not dispute the Bankruptcy Court's ruling" that DOJ had taken the software, and that its decision "was based primarily on the narrow question of whether the Bankruptcy Court had jurisdiction."[^69]

### Congressional and Senate Inquiries

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations staff study of 1989 found "no proof that the Department of Justice attempted to influence the selection process so as to deny Judge Bason reappointment."[^70]

On December 5, 1990, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law held a hearing at which Bason testified.[^71] He told the subcommittee under oath that the Department's actions against its critics may have extended into blocking his reappointment in 1988 because of his ruling in the INSLAW case.[^72] The committee concluded: "The committee was unable to substantiate Judge Bason's charges. If such undue influence did occur, it was subtle and lost in the highly private manner in which judge selection procedures are conducted."[^72]

The committee's interviews with members of the merit selection panel and several members of the Judicial Council echoed the view that the nonreappointment was heavily influenced by the poor administration of the bankruptcy clerk's office. Most of the district and circuit judges interviewed said they had little or no contact with Bason. Nonjudicial panel members said that no statistics were examined, that Bason was not interviewed about the condition of the court, and that neither the clerk nor his staff was interviewed.[^73]

On January 2, 1991, Bason filed a complaint under 28 U.S.C. § 372(c) with the Judicial Council of the Second Circuit against Blackshear, writing that he had "regretfully concluded that Judge Blackshear recanted not because of an honest mistake but because he made a conscious choice to testify falsely." The council and a special committee declined to address the complaint because the alleged perjury concerned matters outside Blackshear's judicial activities, and it was dismissed on October 3, 1991. Bason gave the House committee a copy on October 24, 1991.[^74]

### The Special Counsel's Findings

The report of Special Counsel [[Nicholas J. Bua]] to the [[Attorney General]] is dated March 1993.[^75] Bua wrote that "we find that there is no credible evidence that DOJ employees sought to improperly influence the selection process that resulted in the decision not to reappoint Bankruptcy Judge Bason." The report found that the only evidence of an attempt by anyone within DOJ to influence the process was that relating to Lamberth, whose conduct it described as proper, and recorded that Johnson and Wald "unequivocally deny" that DOJ obstructed the reappointment.[^76] On the pretext question, Bua wrote that Bason "neither acknowledged nor addressed the inherent tension between his finding" that DOJ's financial concerns about INSLAW in December 1982 were pretextual and the conduct of DOJ employees a month later.[^77]

A September 27, 1994 report of the Department of Justice reviewing Bua's report stated: "We are aware that many of these conclusions are at odds with some conclusions reached by Judge Bason after trial in his court. We cannot explain why Judge Bason reached such very different conclusions." It continued that the decisions "rest in large part on Judge Bason's determinations as to the credibility of the witnesses," that the testimony of Hamilton and a few other INSLAW officials "appears to be the only support for the vast majority of Judge Bason's findings," and: "We disagree with Judge Bason's credibility determinations."[^78]

### Footnotes

[^1]: *Bason v. American University*, 414 A.2d 522 (D.C. 1980) (per curiam; first hired as assistant professor of law in 1966; promoted to associate professor in 1969; terminal contract after the fall 1970 committee vote; employment ended June 30, 1972; suit commenced November 1973; summary judgment reversed and remanded). https://static.case.law/a2d/414/cases/0522-01.json
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* (March 1993) ("Bua report"), p. 155 (appointed February 8, 1984 "to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of the District of Columbia's only bankruptcy judge, Roger Whelan"; term four years, expiring February 8, 1988), p. 180 ("He left the bench on February 8."). U.S. Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Governmental Affairs, *Staff Study of Allegations Pertaining to the Department of Justice's Handling of a Contract with INSLAW, Inc.*, S. Prt. 101-58, 101st Cong., 1st sess. (1989) ("PSI staff study"), p. 36 n.182 (appointed in 1984 "to fill the unexpired term of retiring Judge Roger Whalen"; February 4, 1988 given as the date the term was due to expire). https://archive.org/stream/InslawPROMISBuaReport/Inslaw%3APROMIS%20Bua%20Report_djvu.txt ; https://archive.org/details/StaffStudyOfAllegationsPertainingToTheDepartmentOfJusticesHandlingOfAContractWithInslaw
[^3]: *In re INSLAW, Inc.*, 83 B.R. 89 (Bankr. D.D.C. Jan. 25, 1988) (findings of fact and conclusions of law, Bason, J.). https://cite.case.law/br/83/89/
[^4]: *United States v. INSLAW, Inc. (In re INSLAW, Inc.)*, 932 F.2d 1467 (D.C. Cir. May 7, 1991). https://cite.case.law/f2d/932/1467/
[^5]: Bua report, p. 180 n.84 ("Bason filed a similar lawsuit when he was denied tenure by American University College of Law in 1972 ... After summary judgment for the University was reversed and remanded for trial, the parties settled out of court."); 414 A.2d 522 (Thomas Penfield Jackson for appellant).
[^6]: Maggie Mahar, "Beneath Contempt: Did the Justice Department Deliberately Bankrupt INSLAW?," *Barron's*, Mar. 21, 1988, reprinted in PSI staff study, pp. 91-92 ("a 56-year-old federal bankruptcy judge with a reputation for being meticulous in his judicial approach"; "the Harvard Law School graduate and former law professor").
[^7]: Avvo attorney directory listing, "George Francis Bason Jr.," Bethesda, Md. (licensed North Carolina 1956, District of Columbia 1958, Maryland 1989; states that he served four years as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Columbia and has written several books on bankruptcy law). https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/20814-md-george-bason-4636504.html
[^8]: Catalog record, *Bankruptcy* by George F. Bason, Jr., West's Legal Forms, vol. 9 (West Publishing Company, 2d ed. 1984), debtor and creditor relations. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA36707572
[^9]: PSI staff study, p. 9 (July 17, 1987 transmittal letter from Bason to Attorney General Meese, quoting the order's invitation "to designate an appropriate official outside").
[^10]: *In re INSLAW, Inc.*, 76 B.R. 224 (Bankr. D.D.C. July 31, 1987) (opinion on denial of defendants' motion to dismiss). https://cite.case.law/br/76/224/
[^11]: PSI staff study, p. 6 (application of February 25, 1987); Bua report, p. 5 (the petition charged that Brewer was biased against the company).
[^12]: PSI staff study, pp. 6-7 and nn.22-23 (Pasciuto's July 15, 1988 deposition to the staff; Nancy Hamilton's handwritten notes "St call Wh & sd had to be convertd"; Pasciuto's testimony that he did not remember using the word "convert").
[^13]: PSI staff study, p. 7 (Blackshear deposition of March 25, 1987, at 8-9; recanting affidavit within two days; White, Stanton and Jones contradicted Pasciuto's story).
[^14]: PSI staff study, p. 30 (Blackshear's recantation; tape recordings of the ABA conference session in which Blackshear made no mention of the UPI case).
[^15]: Bua report, p. 5 (Bason's oral findings at the conclusion of the independent-handling hearing).
[^16]: *In re INSLAW, Inc.*, 83 B.R. 89, finding 351(n) (Bankr. D.D.C. Jan. 25, 1988). https://cite.case.law/br/83/89/
[^17]: Bua report, p. 194 ("Judge Bason found that Stanton struck a bargain with Brewer"); 83 B.R. 89, finding 329.
[^18]: PSI staff study, pp. 48-49 (OPR referral by Deputy Attorney General Burns in July 1987; OPR memorandum of December 18, 1987 recommending that Pasciuto be fired, quoted at p. 49).
[^19]: Bua report, p. 197.
[^20]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report*, H. Rept. 102-857, 102d Cong., 2d sess. (Sept. 10, 1992) ("House report"), p. 79 ("Mr. Pasciuto's Firing"). https://archive.org/stream/InslawAffairInvestigativeReport/TheInslawAffair_djvu.txt
[^21]: Bua report, p. 197 (OPR report of March 31, 1989).
[^22]: Bua report, p. 35 ("in July 1987 Bankruptcy Judge Bason held a two week trial on the liability phase of Inslaw's claims").
[^23]: PSI staff study, App. D (transcript, *Inslaw, Inc. v. United States*, Adversary Proceeding No. 86-0069, Sept. 28, 1987), p. 70.
[^24]: PSI staff study, App. D, pp. 70 ("poisonous attitude") and 74 ("smoke screen"; "game of cat and mouse").
[^25]: PSI staff study, App. D, p. 76.
[^26]: PSI staff study, App. D, p. 71 (the transcript renders the name "Stewart Shifter").
[^27]: PSI staff study, App. D, p. 71 (Jensen's deposition; the hiring of Brewer by Tyson and McWhorter).
[^28]: *In re INSLAW, Inc.*, 83 B.R. 89, findings 125 and 137.
[^29]: 83 B.R. 89, finding 206.
[^30]: Bua report, p. 7 (summary of Bason's findings; the sentences are the Special Counsel's summary, not a quotation of the bench ruling).
[^31]: Mahar, *Barron's*, Mar. 21, 1988, reprinted in PSI staff study, p. 91 (order of February 2, 1988); Mahar, *Barron's*, Apr. 4, 1988, reprinted in PSI staff study, p. 97 ("He postponed a decision on punitive damages"). U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report on the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.* (Sept. 27, 1994), Part VII, p. 172 (the "$6.8 million awarded it by the Bankruptcy Court").
[^32]: PSI staff study, p. 92 (Bason quoted: "I restrained the IRS from going after the Hamiltons personally ... But that restraining order lasts only 10 days.").
[^33]: Bua report, p. 180 ("During the week before his departure, he issued an award of damages and attorneys' fees against DOJ.").
[^34]: Bua report, pp. 155-156.
[^35]: Bua report, pp. 156-163 (U.S. Attorney's Office file; Lamberth confirmed November 13 and sworn November 16, 1987; the assistant who preceded Brewer as project manager; Froman's view; transcript delivered to Johnson; panel discussion).
[^36]: Bua report, p. 158 and n.73.
[^37]: Bua report, pp. 167-168.
[^38]: Bua report, pp. 166-167, 169-170 and n.82.
[^39]: Bua report, p. 171.
[^40]: Bua report, pp. 172-173; House report, p. 105 (§ VIII.A; panel report dated November 24, 1987; n.329, committee review with Judge Bason, July 22, 1992).
[^41]: House report, pp. 107-108 (Burns's request; Schiffer's request to Hertz; Schiffer memorandum of October 29, 1987, quoted); Bua report, p. 179.
[^42]: Bua report, pp. 183-184; House report, p. 105 ("The committee has no information that Judge Johnson talked to Mr. Schiffer about INSLAW, Judge Bason or the bankruptcy judge selection process").
[^43]: Bua report, pp. 171-172 ("on December 21, 1987, the judges of the Court of Appeals voted either in person or by telephone ... Judge Teel won by a substantial majority").
[^44]: Bua report, p. 175; PSI staff study, p. 36 ("On December 28, 1987, Judge Bason was informed that he was not being reappointed to the bench.").
[^45]: *United States v. INSLAW, Inc.*, 113 B.R. 802 (D.D.C. Nov. 22, 1989) ("the decision on January 11, 1988 by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit not to reappoint Judge Bason"). https://cite.case.law/br/113/802/
[^46]: Mahar, *Barron's*, Mar. 21, 1988, reprinted in PSI staff study, p. 92 (panel headed by Johnson; Wald; "shocking" and "eerie"); Mahar, *Barron's*, Apr. 4, 1988, reprinted in PSI staff study, p. 97 (four of 136).
[^47]: Office of the Circuit Executive, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, news release, "Bankruptcy Judge Merit Selection Panel Appointed" (Jan. 28, 2020) ("Judge Teel has served as the bankruptcy judge in the District of Columbia since February 8, 1988, and will retire on March 22, 2020"). https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/sites/dcd/files/BankruptcyJudgeMeritSelectionPanelNewsReleaseJanuary-28-2020.pdf
[^48]: House report, n.233 (interview of Teel on March 27, 1992).
[^49]: PSI staff study, p. 36.
[^50]: House report, p. 12 (§ I.E) and pp. 102-103 (§ VIII.A).
[^51]: PSI staff study, p. 35 n.176 ("because of the recusal from the case of Judge S. Martin Teel").
[^52]: Bua report, p. 175 ("On January 12, 1988, Judge Bason sent a 14-page letter to Chief Judge Wald with copies to every judge on the Court of Appeals.").
[^53]: PSI staff study, p. 36 n.183; Bua report, p. 175 (letter text: "there may be a more sinister, hidden force behind what has happened ... somehow the Department of Justice has undertaken to influence the judicial selection process as a means of retaliation against me for my recent rulings").
[^54]: Bua report, pp. 175-176.
[^55]: 113 B.R. 802 ("Washington Post, January 18, 1988; Legal Times, January 18, 1988").
[^56]: House report, p. 107 (Hertz memorandum of July 1987).
[^57]: 113 B.R. 802 (January 19, 1988 motion; Schiffer affidavit); Bua report, pp. 176-178.
[^58]: 113 B.R. 802 ("The deputy assistant attorney general's affidavit contains no facts based on personal knowledge. Instead, the affidavit recites the press accounts.").
[^59]: 113 B.R. 802 (hearing January 22, 1988; memorandum and order filed January 25, 1988).
[^60]: House report, p. 108 (Robinson's January 25, 1988 ruling).
[^61]: House report, p. 108 (Bryant: "This court like the courts before it can find no basis in fact to support a motion for recusal.").
[^62]: Bua report, p. 180 ("Bason's lawsuit was unsuccessful. He left the bench on February 8."); Circuit Executive release (note 47).
[^63]: Bua report, pp. 181-182 and 184-185.
[^64]: Bua report, pp. 185-187 and n.85.
[^65]: 113 B.R. 802 (Bryant, Senior J.).
[^66]: 113 B.R. 802 ("twelve percent of the license fees amounts to $655,200. It is by that amount that the compensatory damages award should be reduced.").
[^67]: 932 F.2d 1467 (opinion by Circuit Judge Williams; panel Buckley, Williams and Randolph).
[^68]: 932 F.2d 1467 (caption: "Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied in No. 90-5052 July 12, 1991").
[^69]: House report, p. 112 (Committee conclusions, point 11; majority conclusions, not the dissenting views).
[^70]: PSI staff study, p. 37 ("The Staff found no proof that the Department of Justice attempted to influence the selection process so as to deny Judge Bason reappointment.").
[^71]: House report, p. 14 (§ II).
[^72]: House report, p. 12 (§ I.E).
[^73]: House report, p. 105 (§ VIII.B).
[^74]: House report, pp. 78-79 (complaint of January 2, 1991; dismissed October 3, 1991; copy provided October 24, 1991, n.344).
[^75]: Bua report, cover page and transmittal text.
[^76]: Bua report, p. 13 (executive summary conclusion); p. 188 (§ VIII.F).
[^77]: Bua report, p. 131.
[^78]: U.S. Department of Justice, *Report on the Review of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua's Report on the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc.* (Sept. 27, 1994), Part VII, pp. 185-186 (quoting *In re INSLAW*, 83 B.R. at 156, on Hamilton's testimony), printed in the same volume as the Bua report. https://archive.org/stream/InslawPROMISBuaReport/Inslaw%3APROMIS%20Bua%20Report_djvu.txt
[^79]: Associated Press, "U.S. Probing Possible Perjury in Inslaw Case," *Los Angeles Times*, May 6, 1988, Part IV, pp. 9, 12. https://www.newspapers.com/image/404305287/