"It was an unusual statement for a federal prosecutor"

Nossiter in yesterday's NYT story on NOAH

The scandal has dominated headlines and television news reports here for weeks. Mayor C. Ray Nagin at first angrily denied that there were problems at the nonprofit agency, the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corporation, created in 1989 and known as NOAH. Last Thursday, however, Mr. Nagin, summoned to appear before the City Council, acknowledged for the first time that there were “discrepancies” in the agency’s records and said some houses supposedly worked on had in fact not been.

The next day, the United States attorney here, Jim Letten, said a federal investigation into NOAH was under way. It was an unusual statement for a federal prosecutor. Mr. Letten made it, he said in a brief interview Monday, because he thought it would have “value in terms of public confidence,” a remark underscoring the weakened level of public trust in municipal undertakings here.

The remark also underscored the fact that US Attorney is every bit as political an office as... say Mayor of New Orleans.