Former U.S. prosecutor going to work for subject of grand jury probe.

Thomas Marino, the former U.S. Attorney for the middle district of Pennsylvania, has taken a new job as in-house counsel for wealthy Scranton businessman Louis A. DeNaples, who is at the center of a grand jury probe, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported this morning.

Marino, 55, who stepped down in October as the top federal prosecutor in the region that stretches from Scranton to Harrisburg, will represent DeNaples' many businesses interests, but not the Mount Airy Resort Casino, he told the paper.

A grand jury in Dauphin County is focusing on whether DeNaples lied to state regulators when he denied having any ties to organized crime in his successful bid to win a coveted slots license in 2006. Marino, who has known DeNaples since 1990, had written a letter of support for DeNaples as he fought to win state approval.

Marino told the paper that federal rules bar him from assisting DeNaples in the grand jury investigation, but defended his new boss.

"After 18 years as a prosecutor," he told the Patriot-News, "I'm not going to work for a guy who is breaking the law."