What Was Objectively Peculiar About the Justice Department Interview? The Mah Nishtanah of the DOJ.

People have been coming up to me on the street.  They have been asking me, demanding to know, beseeching me: "Mr. Freedman, was there anything objectively peculiar about the events that occurred at your residence on the morning of Friday January 15, 2010, the day two officers from the U.S. Department of Justice carried out a taped interview of you at your apartment?  Why was this interview different from all other law enforcement interviews?"

Well, in response to the many beseeching questions I have received since that dark day in January, I have to say: "Yes, there were some things about the Justice Department interview that were objectively peculiar."

The Justice Department officer started off with an odd question: "Have you been to the opera lately?"  (And, no, I'm not making this up.  Go to the audiotape!) I said: "I went to the opera on November 15th."

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2009/11/gotterdammerung.html

Indeed, I had attended a performance of Gotterdammerung on November 15, 2009.  Ironically, or uncannily, this is the second time that Wagner's opera Gotterdammerung has arisen in the course of a law enforcement interview.  In the 1990s the U.S. Secret Service was concerned about a dream analysis I had written that I had titled "The Dream of Murder in the Lobby."  My associations to the dream concerned John Hinckley's attempted assassination of President Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in March 1981.  In June 1993, after I wrote up my dream analysis, I had sent a copy of the text to the U.S. Social Security Administration in support of my disability claim.  (The opera Gotterdammerung contains the line, "Meineid recht Ich."  An English translation would be "I have avenged perjury."  The interview itself was conducted under penalty of prosecution for making false statements.  Ironic, isn't it?)

My book Significant Moments includes the following quotation:

The relationship between the two men [Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche] grew increasingly close, and during the war year of 1870—the high tide of their intimacy—each labored at a work reflecting this happiest time of their friendship, a brief period Richard Strauss considered one of the century's most significant moments.
Robert W. Gutman, Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music.

Coincidentally, the work that Wagner was "laboring on" in 1870 was none other than the opera Gotterdammerung!  

The Justice Department officer asked: "How would you react to Dennis Race (the Akin Gump attorney who terminated my job in late October 1991) if you happened to meet him in a men's room?"  Yes, he actually asked that.  I thought: "A men's room?  Why a men's room?"  What if I saw Dennis Race at a Washington Nationals game?  The officer never asked me about seeing Dennis Race at any other venue.  Perhaps my reaction to Dennis Race would differ depending on the venue.  If this had been a deposition, opposing counsel would note the ambiguity of the question, and not allow the attorney to proceed without rewording the question.  But then, law enforcement officers are not attorneys.

I had a remote association to the reference to a men's room -- "Why a men's room?"  I kept thinking of the Marx brothers routine, "Why a duck?" "Why not a chicken?"



The officer asked me where I ate out.  I said: "I never eat out."  "You never eat out?"  "No, I never eat out?"

The officer asked me if I shop at any supermarkets in the neighborhood.  I said, "Yes.  There is a supermarket up the street."  "What's that called?"  "It's a Giant supermarket."  "Then there's a supermarket down the street."  "What's that called?"  "Brookville," I said.

The officer asked me if I went to a movie theater in the neighborhood.  I explained that the Uptown Theater is down the street, but that in the nearly twenty seven years that I lived in the neighborhood I never attended that theater.  The officer reflexed when I mentioned how many years I lived in Washington.

The officer began to talk about religion.  He asked me if I ever felt as if I wanted a "spiritual connection" in my life.  I said "no."  A spiritual connection?  I felt as if I was talking to Billy Graham.  We talked about the synagogue down the street from me, Adas Israel Congregation.  I said, "Well, you don't want me to go there."  And he said: "Well, you could go to another synagogue."  That didn't sound kosher to me.  A federal officer was agreeing that I couldn't attend my local synagogue.  Did he never hear about the First Amendment?

At the beginning of the interview the officer asked, "What is your motivation in writing a blog?"  That question also raises First Amendment issues.  I am permitted to write a blog for any reason or no reason at all.  In fact, I have been writing my blog, My Daily Struggles, since the late summer of 2005.  Did he think I was writing a blog to promote some illegal scheme?

The officer also asked: "What is it exactly that you are looking for?"  I paused.  I didn't know how to answer. He said, "Are you looking for a statement (presumaby admitting wrongdoing by someone)?

The officer asked me if I go to a library in the neighborhood.  I said "yes."  He asked me if the library had a name.  I said, "Yes.  It's the Cleveland Park Neighborhood library, located at 3310 . . . "  The officer became aroused, and cut me off in mid-sentence.  What is it about the Cleveland Park Library that would arouse a federal officer?

At one point, the second officer asked me if I take any medication.  I said, "Yes. I take Geodon, 20 milligrams per day."  He repeated, "20 milligrams?"   I said, "yes."  Then an unusual thing occurred.  He didn't allow me to finish.  He didn't allow me to say that I also take Effexor and Ativan.  The officer was hung up on the fact that I took 20 milligrams of Geodon, but had no interest in the other medications my doctor has prescribed.  It made no sense.  His question was "Do you take any medication?"  He never allowed me to answer the question fully.  Why did he ask the question?

At one point the lead officer asked: "Couldn't you get relief from Title VII?"  I was dumbfounded.  Title VII?  My case was fully litigated as of September 1, 1998, more than eleven years ago.  Why was he asking about legal relief?  Besides, the officer worked for the Justice Department--which employs hundreds of lawyers.  Why would a Justice Department officer be asking me for my legal opinion about the applicability of Title VII or any statute?  I had an idea of reference: It was my impression he just wanted to use the word "title."  Earlier in the interview he kept referring to the titles of my blog posts.

At the end, actually after the interview, he asked me if I owned a dog or a cat.  I explained that the building management permits tenants to have cats, but not dogs.  I explained that I wouldn't want a cat because if it had an accident, the smell would remain in the apartment indefinitely.  The officer reflexed when I used the word "smell."

http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/DC-Washington-3801-Connecticut-Avenue-293054.html

At the end of the interview, the officer said, "Do you mind if I telephone your sister?"  Did I mind?  Since when does law enforcement ask permission to contact anyone?  That request was peculiar.

At the beginning of the interview I had given the officer a copy of my book Significant Moments.  After the interview, the officer handed me a pen and asked me to autograph the book. An oddity in itself.  But he also did a most unusual thing.  As I was about to write down his name he said, "Derrick."  That was his first name, he wanted me to use his first name.  Why did he say that?  Why would I address a law enforcement by his first name?  If I were arguing a case before the Supreme Court would I say, "Now, Ruth, I have to disagree."

Can you see why I formed the opinion that the Justice Department had a secret agenda in interviewing me at my home?  The entire interview was riddled with objective peculiarities.

http://dailstrug.blogspot.com/2010/04/us-marshal-service-use-of-interview-for.html