Mayor Williams Questions Consultant

(Washington, DC) Mayor Anthony A. Williams issued the following statement today upon learning that the lawyer hired by the D.C. Council had previously worked against the District getting a baseball team in the first place. The Council paid Louis Cohen an undisclosed amount to advise Councilmembers on baseball; Cohen earlier worked for the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority, which fought to keep the Montreal Expos from coming to DC.

“This is a shocking conflict of interest,” Mayor Williams said. “How can the residents of the District of Columbia trust the advice of a lawyer when his previous work was on behalf of Northern Virginia? It’s a blatant and inherent conflict - especially now that Cohen, and others at Piper Rudnick, have encouraged the Council to take actions that could jeopardize the fragile deal to keep the Nationals in DC.”

Williams added: “I assume the Council was unaware of this conflict of interest. A decision this important should not be left to a firm that sought to build a ballpark in a cow pasture in Virginia.”