Prosecutors ordered to explain details of investigation into FBI agent Matthew Lowry Prosecutors assured a federal judge in the District on Monday that they are providing as much information as possible to defendants in a large-scale narcotics case affected by an FBI agent accused of tampering with drug and gun evidence. But defense lawyers said they have received more information from the media than the U.S. attorney's office, and they complained of what one legal advocate described as a virtual "shutdown of information." U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who is presiding over the drug case that involves 30 defendants, some of whom have pleaded guilty, ordered prosectors to give him a detailed account of the agent's alleged misconduct, which he is to review in a private session Monday afternoon. Later, the judge scheduled a hearing in open court to brief defense attorneys. It is unclear how many details will be made public about the criminal investigation into FBI Special Agent Matthew Lowry, who has been suspended from the Washington field office. The 33-year-old agent has not been charged with a crime. The investigation into Lowry's conduct began the week of Sept. 29, around the time officials have said the agent was found slumped in an unmarked FBI vehicle parked near the Navy Yard. Heroin and two guns were in the car, investigators said. Since then, prosecutors in the District have dismissed indictments against two dozen defendants in two drug cases, including some convicted and sent to prison. They have been released and had their sentences vacated. One federal judge refused to dismiss indictments against four defendants in a third case, saying he wanted more information, and defense attorneys are appealing. Prosectors said they are examining Lowry's cases defendant-by-defendant, and they have so far notified 150 defendants that the agent worked with in some way. In most instances, prosecutors described Lowry's involvement as peripheral, or minor, and indicated they would not dismiss charges. But those cases have been put hold until the Lowry investigation is complete, leading to delays in plea bargains, bail hearings and sentencings. While it is unusual for authorities to acknowledge, much less describe, the details of an ongoing investigation, such as the one into Lowry, Sullivan is pressing for daily updates on the probe so that defendants with pending drug cases can understand how the alleged misconduct might affect their charges. Sullivan angrily expressed his dissatisfaction with those updates on Friday and ordered a representative from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to appear before him at 9:30 a.m. on Monday. That office is leading the investigation to avoid conflicts of interest with federal prosecutors in the District. The judge said he is concerned that prosecutors in Pennsylvania could uncover information in their criminal investigation of Lowry that might help defendants in the drug case in Washington, but they might not forward those details quickly, or at all, to their counterparts in the District who are deciding whether cases in which Lowry worked can go forward. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter F. Schenck, the chief of the criminal division for the federal prosecutor's office in Philadelphia, told Sullivan that there is no firewall, and that his staff is providing all evidence gathered in the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District. "What we know, they will know," Schenck said. When he knows it, they will know it. Sullivan pressed Schenck for a timeline for investigating Lowry, which the prosecutor said "would not be more than a few months." Schenck also said that no FBI agent or police official other than Lowry is a target of the criminal investigation. In court filings, authorities have said that Lowry participated in the search of a home and one vehicle in southern Maryland, as part of the drug case, and that the guns he is accused of tampering with were from that case. But prosecutors have also said they don't believe the allegations involving Lowry would affect any of the defendants because he had no direct role in obtaining warrants or listening to wiretaps. But A. Eduardo Balarezo, who represents the alleged kingpin in the drug case, Juan Floyd, said he and other attorneys want to examine those claims for themselves. He said he wants the names of all FBI agents who participated in the investigation, particularly those who worked with Lowry, so that he can question them and independently decide whether they knew anything about the alleged misconduct and possibly ignored it, and whether any other evidence has been compromised. "Agent Lowry was part of a task force, he was part of a team," Balarezo said. He added later, "The only information we have gotten has been from The Washington Post, not from the U.S. Attorney's office." Jonathan Zucker, who is representing Juan Floyd's daughter, Brittany Floyd, also said that more information on Lowry needs to be disclosed. It is the job of the defense lawyers to examine the evidence and determine whether it will help our clients. Both Zucker and Balarezo said it is impossible to argue for their clients to be freed from detention, have their cases dismissed or agree to a plea offer without knowing what Lowry allegedly did. "We are in the dark," Balarezo said. An example of a question that Balarezo said has become more relevant since the Lowry case broke open is why agents who searched his client's home recorded seizing 300 grams of heroin, but only 209 grams were entered into evidence in the case. Lowry did not participate in that search. Just the same, Balarezo said, "this now raises questions." Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan M. Malis, chief of the District's criminal division, told the judge that his office is moving as quickly as it can to be accountable to both the public and defense attorneys, noting that prosecutors moved "quickly, decisively and deliberately" to dismiss indictments against 28 defendants. In many of those cases, it involved freeing felons from prisons across the country.