PHILADELPHIA (AP) - U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah can no longer afford to pay the law firm representing him in a federal racketeering case and will seek new counsel for his upcoming trial.
A judge has scheduled a hearing for next week to decide if Fattah’s lawyers can withdraw from the case after five months and what Fattah called $100,000 in payments.
An indictment accuses the 11-term Democrat of using federal grants and charitable donations to repay an illegal $1 million campaign loan; funneling campaign money toward his son’s student loan; and accepting bribes, including cash payments toward a vacation home and tuition for an au pair.
Fattah said the law firm of Kevin Mincey and Thomas Fitzpatrick is not in a position to continue representation without payment.
“I have spent more than $300,000 to-date in litigating this matter, including over $100,000 to their law firm,” Fattah said Thursday in a statement. “My focus is now on raising money for an unanticipated primary challenge.”
State Sen. Dwight Evans and several other Democrats are trying to oust Fattah.
The lawyers’ motion to withdraw comes just days after they filed a flurry of motions seeking to throw out parts of the case against Fattah.
Mincey declined to comment on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III has denied the Mincey & Fitzpatrick law firm’s bid to keep the issue under seal.
Fattah’s trial is set to start May 2. Several of Fattah’s former aides also are charged in the case.
Fattah’s son, Chaka “Chip” Fattah Jr., is appealing a conviction last year in a bank and tax fraud case led by the prosecutors involved in his father’s case. He has called himself collateral damage in the FBI’s pursuit of his father.
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