A high-ranking prosecutor in New Orleans’ U.S. Attorney’s Office who led the pending criminal case against former mayor LaToya Cantrell has been withdrawn from her prosecution team and placed on leave, as the office’s top prosecutor says the Justice Department has opened an investigation into “allegations of employee misconduct.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsberg, the office’s longtime public corruption chief, has helmed the yearslong probe of Cantrell and secured the bombshell grand jury indictment against her last August. The charges accused the mayor of spending taxpayer money on romantic sojourns with her police bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, then conspiring to hide the relationship while she was in office.
Ginsberg was promoted this spring to head the office’s criminal prosecutions after U.S. Attorney David Courcelle was appointed by President Donald Trump…