Former Hill Aide, Assistant U.S. Attorney to Lead MLB Investigations Unit
Bryan Seeley, a former assistant U.S. attorney in D.C., joined a different team Thursday. Seeley will now lead Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations as MLB’s vice president of investigations and deputy general counsel.
Seeley, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, will oversee the division, which focuses on investigating the use of performance-enhancing drugs and other charges of MLB rules violations.
“Major League Baseball set out to reposition the scope, capabilities and efficiency of its Department of Investigations as its needs have evolved,” Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement announcing the hire. “Bryan’s multifaceted experience as an Assistant U.S. Attorney will make him an invaluable resource for our game.”
Seeley worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. for the past eight years, most recently prosecuting white-collar crime in the Fraud and Public Corruption section. The litigator also has ties to Capitol Hill. In 2013, Seeley served as counsel to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and worked to help pass the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. In a statement following the bill’s passage, Leahy named Seeley among a number staff members who worked on the legislation, thanking them “for their countless hours of work away from their own families as we try to make all families safer and more secure.”
Now, Seeley finds himself leading a department that was developed because of recommendations from another senator: former Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine.
In December of 2007, Mitchell released a comprehensive report on steroid use in Major League Baseball, saying, “There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.” Mitchell recommended that the league establish an independent department to investigate allegations of steroid use, which led to the creation of the Department of Investigations in 2008.
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