MEMORANDUM

MILTON I. SHADUR, Senior District Judge.

Under Section 230.36(a) of the Criminal Justice Act ("CJA") Guidelines, entitled "Notification of Proposed Rejection of CJA Compensation Vouchers," a judge considering the possibility of such a reduction is required to provide the CJA-appointed counsel with:

That provision is ordinarily invoked in situations where the fee application of a federal defender program attorney may be viewed as excessive and an evidentiary hearing is needed to inquire into that subject. This case is unusual in that respect, for it has posed the question whether the CJA application by former federal defender Francis Baumgart ("Baumgart"), whose membership on this District Court's CJA panel was revoked so that his services thereafter were rendered as a compensated retained counsel, should be rejected in its entirety — not for the reasons that gave rise to that revocation (reasons not known to this Court, for the federal defender program in this judicial district maintains confidentiality in making such seldom-taken and unusual decisions), but rather for reasons attributable to attorney Baumgart's handling of this case.

That circumstance clearly called for an evidentiary hearing, and this Court so ordered. Attorney Baumgart shared that view, for on January 13, 2015 he filed a motion (Dkt. No. 198, presented on January 16) for an evidentiary hearing pursuant to Section 230.36(a). That hearing has finally been completed on April 7, 2016, and on April 13 this Court issued its memorandum opinion and order that denied attorney Baumgart's request in its entirety. That opinion has been filed under seal because of the special circumstances it describes, and Baumgart's CJA voucher has been returned to this District Court's Financial Specialist Kari Goodmay together with a copy of this memorandum.