Justice Manual § 1-8.500

State and local legislative requests for public information should be handled in the manner described in section 1-8.210 and 1-8.220. Requests from state and local legislative officials for any other type of information, assistance, testimony, or meeting must be cleared by the Department through OLA. Department personnel acting in their official capacities should not advocate for passage or defeat of state or local legislation, including state or local referenda or ballot initiatives, or otherwise give an opinion on state or local legislation, without prior approval from the Department, except to the extent that Department personnel are participating in an established inter-governmental body expressly charged with participation in or commenting upon state or local practices that may include legislative proposals.

Whenever Department employees make any public communication on criminal justice or other policy matters that touch on local or state concerns, they should be sensitive to comity considerations. The substance and manner of such communications should be designed to enhance and not impede federal, state, and local law enforcement relations; be sensitive to the public appearance of the proper role and limits of federal prosecutors; and give due deference to the separate constitutional powers and responsibilities of state and local officials. The substance of any such communication should be consistent with Department policy in that area, be distributed in an appropriate fashion, be factual in nature, and be based on federal law enforcement concerns, views, and experience.

NOTE: The requirements in this section regarding state and local legislative and other matters do not apply to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which has unique jurisdictional obligations as the local prosecutor for the District of Columbia.