Odd Break-in at Law Office Representing State Dept. Whistleblower: The Surprising Thing the Crooks Didn’t Take

Jul. 8, 2013 8:54amJonathon M. Seidl

A Dallas law firm representing a high-profile Sate Department whistleblower is concerned after its offices were broken into and burglarized last weekend. But this wasn’t just a typical smash-and-grab job: instead of taking numerous valuables, the crooks took computers with sensitive information and broke into a file cabinet. In fact, they even left bars of silver.

The crooks seen leaving the scene with the computers. (Source: Surveillance video via KDFW-TV)

“It’s a crazy, strange and suspicious situation,” lawyer Cary Schulman of the firm Schulman & Mathias told The Cable. “It’s clear to me that it was somebody looking for information and not money. My most high-profile case right now is the Aurelia Fedenisn case, and I can’t think of any other case where someone would go to these great lengths to get our information.”

Fedenisn is the whistleblower is the former State Dept. inspector general who is claiming the agency “influenced, manipulated, or simply called off” several misconduct investigations, including those involving sexual assaults and prostitution scandals. Most recently, she said the department was trying to intimidate her for coming forward.

In short, as KDFW-TV put it, Schlman believes people were “sent” to break in.

Attorney Cary Schulman (Source: KDFW screen shot)

The State Dept. for its part is denying any Watergate-like involvement.

“Any allegation that the Department of State authorized someone to break into Mr. Schulman’s law firm is false and baseless,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told The Cable.

But that’s not exactly what Schulman is alleging.

“It wasn’t professional enough,” he explained to The Cable regarding the State Dept. theory. But he does have another: “It is possible that an Obama or Hillary supporter feels that I am unfairly going after them. And the timing of this is right after several weeks of very public media attention so it seems to me most likely that the information sought is related to that case. I don’t know for sure and I want the police to do their work.”

The Dallas police are investigating and Schulman also contacted the FBI.