Child Rapist Roman Polanski’s Lawyers Met with Obama’s Justice Department to Plead Against His Extradition to LA from Switzerland.

In a somewhat unusual move attorneys for Roman Polanski, 76, were granted a meeting with Obama’s Justice Department officials and presented their arguments against extraditing from Switzerland, where he is currently being held, to Los Angeles to face sentencing for his 1977 criminal case. The jailed director admitted to drugging and raping a 13-year old child as part of a plea bargain but became fearful he could be imprisoned for a long time if a jury heard the case. The then 46-year old  fled to avoid his punishment..

According to court documents filed in L.A., Polanski’s lawyers recently sought help from Obama administration officials in the Justice Department requesting that they not return the filmmaker to the U.S. So far Attorney General Holdren’s department has ducked an answer fearing if they free

Members of the director’s legal team met with a deputy assistant attorney general and other Justice Department officials on Oct. 2, 2009, according to the appellate court filing. Lawyers presented arguments in opposition to moving the director back to the states to face sentencing, as evidenced in a letter attached to the filing by the L.A. district attorney’s office.

The lawyer letter expresses gratitude for the meeting to Bruce Swartz, who oversees the department’s Office of International Affairs.

The 10-page document was part of a filing in which prosecutors seek a dismissal of Polanski’s appeal “as moot.”

Polanski’s lawyers had filed the appeal prior to their client’s Switzerland arrest. It contained a summary of allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in the case, laying the groundwork for Polanski’s appeal.

Meanwhile the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is preparing a formal request for Polansky’s extradition, and lobbying the feds will have no impact on that effort.