William Jeffress Jr. was ticked off. On April 8, 2004, the Baker Botts partner had returned from a meeting to watch a press conference on his office computer. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was announcing the indictment of Jeffress’ client, Houston’s Reliant Energy Services Inc. — a subsidiary of Reliant Energy Inc. — and four of its employees for criminal manipulation of the California energy market during the rolling blackouts of 2000 and 2001.
The indictment came as no surprise. Prosecutors in the San Francisco office had told the company a few weeks earlier that criminal charges were coming.
