◆ SpookStack

defendants "failed to demonstrate that they suffered actual prejudice by reason of the pre-indictment publicity." Memorandum and order of August 6, 1980 at 15. Judge Mishler also found that dismissal of the indictments would be an unwarranted exercise of the court's supervisory powers. These leaks caused serious embarrassment to the government and such concern to the justice department that it designated Richard Blumenthal, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to. investigate and report. At least part of his findings have been. made public, and appropriate internal discipline has been administered to the offenders by the justice department. This court need be concerned with the causes. of the leaks only if some right of a defendant was infringed. There is no indication here that either fair treatment before the grand jury or a fundamentally fair trial. was. in any way compromised: by the barrage of publicity that accompanied public revelations of defendants’ activities’ and the Abscam investigation. Before the grand_jury, the cases of all of these defendants were extremely simple, consisting primarily of ‘the videotapes. There is no indica- tion that any of the grand jurors was influenced in favor , of returning indictments by earlier publicity, and Judge Mishleri disposed of this aspect of defendants' claims in his memorandum and order. Of course, the indictments re- a ee,