Bud Cummins has been a United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas for five years. President Donald Trump appointed him. He is currently a lawyer in private practice.
Cummins graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. His expertise includes white-collar criminal defense, political and election law, internal investigations, regulatory compliance, and complex commercial litigation.
He served as Chief Legal Counsel to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He formed his law firm in 2015. Before that, he served as Senior Advisor and General Counsel with the Circumference Group.
They specialize in public investment in the information technology, telecommunications, and business-to-business services industries.
In a recent press conference, Cummins appeared with Raniere/Bronfman attorneys Alan Dershowitz, Joseph Tully, and Ronald Sullivan, and forensic experts Rick Kiper and Stacy Eldridge.
It seems likely that the Bronfman/Raniere team retained Cummins to lend his credibility to the effort to prompt an investigation into the allegations of FBI tampering.
Though a former US Attorney, he does not have a high opinion of the DOJ or FBI. He says their reputation is in tatters.
Cummins is also a Trump appointee, and it is evident that Trump and the FBI are not on good terms.
That Bronfman likely paid him should be considered when evaluating his comments. However, he is in private law practice. As a lawyer, he depends on clients who rely on his credibility.
Here is what he had to say about the alleged FBI tampering in the case of Keith Raniere.
By Bud Cummins
I’m the former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. In the face of this alarming evidence, there’s really no excuse for the court or the prosecutor to hide behind procedural delays in waiting to get to the bottom of this.
They should take immediate action, and if they can’t, or they won’t. United States Attorney General should appoint an independent prosecutor.
If an independent investigation determines this tampering occurred, there must be accountability. People have to be criminally prosecuted. This is very serious.
I can’t remember seeing so many qualified experts come down so solidly on the side of wrongdoing as as we’ve seen here.
A number of forensic experts with particularly impressive resumes have examined the evidence in this case, at least the evidence that’s been made available to them, and based on those examinations, however, they have come to some very firm conclusions that wrongdoing has occurred here.
These highly qualified experts are quite sure that evidence tampering has occurred in this case.
As a former United States Attorney, as former member of the Department of Justice, I would say this is more than enough to deem this matter of high priority throughout the department.
The government authorities must quickly ferret out the truth in this case. In recent years, I think we all know there’s been a variety of revelations in cases unrelated to this one that have left DOJ’s reputation and the FBI reputation in tatters.
And I think it’s an understatement to say that their credibility is in question.
Even so, it would be a historic finding if it were determined that someone tampered with the evidence in this particular case.
I believe the United States Attorney and the FBI should immediately get to the bottom of this. The opinions of these experts are too credible and too serious to simply marginalize the allegations as frivolous.
The government should not circle the wagons. They should not hide behind procedure. They should want to know the truth more than anyone. If a fair and thorough investigation of these facts is not initiated immediately, a neutral authority should step in. We must know what really happened here.
I would add to that, when you work at the Department of Justice, and you have that immense power at your disposal, your job is not to celebrate convictions and you don’t mourn acquittal.
Your job is to put evidence fairly in front of the court and seek justice.
I can just tell you, if this had happened when I was US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, you wouldn’t have to wait for a judge to set a hearing.
There’d be an investigation going on right now. Because the FBI and the United States Attorney’s office and the Department of Justice can’t tolerate inaction if something like what is alleged happened here. Because their credibility is so important.
And like I said before, it’s already in pretty bad shape.
I’ve been frustrated since I left the Department of Justice because so many times I’ve said to people, you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. People are probably doing their jobs, but we just aren’t seeing it. But at the end of the day, that’s not always the case.
There’s been disappointment after disappointment that goes all the way to the leadership at Department of Justice and FBI.
And this situation is only going to make it worse.
Somebody needs to stand up right now and say we need to get to the bottom of this right now. And if we find that there’s malfeasance and the people that are best situated to figure this out are the FBI and the Department of Justice. So they should get to the bottom of it. And they should come forward and offer the evidence.
As Professor Alan Dershowitz and Professor Ronald Sullivan said, they should join with the defense if they find that this is true, and see the appropriate remedy immediately.
I guarantee you there are criminal statutes that would be implicated and criminal prosecution [of government actors] would be available.
18 USC 1512 tampering with a witness victim or format. Somewhere in that statute or a statute close to that is probably the legal criminal remedy for conduct like this.
