The D.C. Bar Counsel is recommending that former federal prosecutor G. Paul Howes be suspended for at least two years from practicing law in the District for his misconduct in a witness payment scandal.
Howes also should “furnish proof of rehabilitation as a condition of reinstatement,” stated the 116-page brief filed on June 25. A Board on Professional Responsibility hearing committee hasn’t yet issued its recommended sanctions after hearing testimony in May from Howes and other witnesses. Howes — an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District in the 1990s — testified that poor training, a heavy caseload and a desire to help people in need led him to approve improper witness payment vouchers.
