About a week before Memphians went to the polls in the mayoral special election, former Mayor Willie Herenton got a letter from the U.S. Justice Department.

The so-called target letter officially acknowledges a months-long federal investigation into some of Herenton’s personal business deals while mayor, including his one-time ownership stake in the Downtown Greyhound bus station property.

And the letter tells the now-former city mayor he’s the target of a federal criminal probe surrounding the Greyhound property.

In response, Herenton sent a four-page letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder earlier this week.

High, low places

Herenton received his target letter as an investigation by state prosecutors into a Herenton appointee, former City Attorney Elbert Jefferson Jr., was picking up steam.

Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons’ office had opened a probe into whether a $55,000 city payment Jefferson authorized to Robert Spence – an attorney who had been advising Herenton as the Greyhound investigation unfolded – was an appropriate use of city money.

Jefferson resigned the weekend after the Oct. 15 election. He’s scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury Thursday about why the payment was made to Herenton’s attorney.

In his letter to Holder, Herenton appears to reference the period of uncertainty in the city’s legal division when Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery tried to fire Jefferson. Jefferson was locked out of his City Hall office for two days starting with the first day of Lowery’s tenure, July 31.

Herenton specifically charges that “the federal government” played an “active role” in the release of legal records kept by Jefferson at City Hall detailing Spence’s legal bills, as well as the subjects of meetings he had about the grand jury investigation. The documents were released by Lowery’s administration.

Their release drew immediate protests from Jefferson and Spence, who claimed they revealed privileged information.

“The records that were wrongfully obtained contained the mental impressions and work product of my attorney, whom I retained to provide me with legal counsel regarding the allegations that my private business dealings had been unethical or violated ordinances and/or state statutes,” Herenton wrote.

‘Acceptable political discourse’

In the letter to Holder, Herenton the nation’s top attorney to review the local U.S. Attorney’s office and its handling of the persistent allegations of corruption.

Herenton specifically accuses the local U.S. Attorney’s Office of leaking information to the Commercial Appeal.

“It is my sincere belief that the communication from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office identifying me as a target of a federal investigation coming just weeks prior to my first formal (congressional) campaign event is grounded solely in politics and is nothing more than a well-orchestrated attempt to influence the outcome of the congressional election next year,” Herenton wrote in the letter obtained by The Daily News.

Herenton is referring to his plan to run against U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen in the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District in 2010.

Herenton wrote that the target letter “involves personal business transactions that I participated in while mayor and which specifically concern a local Greyhound Bus Line property.”

Herenton resigned as mayor at the end of July, capping 18 years in office – a longer tenure than any other mayor in Memphis history.

“It is because I have advocated so strongly for the equitable participation of minorities in local economic development that I have made many enemies in this community,” Herenton wrote. “With this professional history, I am acutely aware that politics can sometimes be hardball and often time resemble a blood sport. This is nothing more than a vicissitude of the life I have chosen.

“However, the involvement of law enforcement agencies and the Justice Department in local politics and in attempting to influence the outcome of an election is not only unethical, but also crosses the line of acceptable political discourse.”

Options open, closed

Herenton at one time owned an option to buy the land the Greyhound bus station now stands on bordering Union Avenue between Third and Fourth streets.

It was one of several sites mentioned late in Herenton’s tenure as a possible place for a new convention center. But that idea fizzled.

Herenton sold his option to buy the Greyhound land to Elvin Moon, a Los Angeles-based developer and businessman with Memphis connections.

Herenton made $91,000 from the sale of the option. Greyhound remains the owner of the land despite a tentative plan to move the bus terminal to a new structure the Memphis Area Transit Authority is building near Memphis International Airport.

The bus company had backed out of a much earlier plan to move the bus terminal to Central Station as it was being renovated in the early 1990s. To date, Greyhound officials have not signed the deal to move to the MATA facility near the airport.