Feds indict ex Detroit Mayor while still locked up

According to Detroit free press:

Federal prosecutors just hit them with a weighty indictment detailing how they abused the public's trust by pocketing millions and living large -- jet-setting, driving luxury cars and visiting spas.

Taxpayers know a lot about what ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, are accused of doing. But how these once politically powerful men qualified for court-appointed lawyers is a secret.
That's because the affidavits that federal defendants fill out to qualify for free attorneys are kept under seal, as are the legal bills their lawyers submit.
And the Kilpatricks are not alone.
Ex-Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers -- wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers -- is in prison for taking bribes. She also qualified for a court-appointed lawyer. So did Umar Abdulmutallab -- charged with trying to blow up an airliner as it approached Detroit last Christmas -- who hails from a wealthy Nigerian family.
"Taxpayers should have a right to know what they're paying for," said Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste.
Rest assured, the courts aren't handing out lawyers too freely, said Miriam Siefer, chief federal defender of the Eastern District of Michigan.
"The money is not being wasted," Siefer said. "There is a budgeting process that ensures that the money is not being wasted, that it's not just a blank check."

High-profile defendants get top-shelf lawyers paid by taxpayers

In the world of court-appointed attorneys, family connections and social status don't matter.
But what does matter isn't exactly clear, as the government is approving top-shelf lawyers for some high-profile federal defendants without disclosing how they qualified -- only that they did.
Ex-Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick -- all figures in a federal public corruption scandal -- qualified for free lawyers. So did Umar Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane last Christmas. He is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker.