Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Society

If The Glands Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit: Prince Andrew Advances Curious Perspiration-Based Defense To Epstein Allegations

It was a defense that would make Johnnie Cochran proud. In an exclusive BBC interview, Prince Andrew insisted that he could not have had sex with an underaged girl arranged by Jeffrey Epstein because he does not perspire and she referenced his “sweating all over me.” This ultimate “no sweat” response is unlikely to convince many given the infamous pictures of the Prince with his arm around Virginia Giuffre at the home of Epstein. It is bad enough to be considered criminal without adding comical in the eyes of your critics. Hence the New York Post headline “His Royal Dryness.”

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Bizarre, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

“You’re Done”: Conservative Radio Host Fired On The Air After Criticizing Donald Trump

“You’re Done”: Conservative Radio Host Fired On The Air After Criticizing President Donald Trump

In an example of the increasing intolerance for opposing views, particularly about President Donald Trump, a conservative Denver radio host at 710 KNUS was cut off the air in mid show and fired after he criticized Trump. According to the Denver Post, former district attorney Craig Silverman had just criticized the President in a segment on Roy Cohn when the Program Director Kelly Michaels came into the studio and simply said “You’re Done.”

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Spokane Police Find Suspect Hiding In Clothes Dryer, Along With Missing Sock
A tumble-dry low

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

A Spokane man is in hot air after allegedly attempting to evade arrest on a protection order violation by cloistering himself within a clothing dryer. No, it was not a big “Canyon-aire-o” sized dryer but it was a stackable apartment version.

Police claim that it was the work of a K-9 who found our hapless crook, but I have it on good authority it might have been the Snuggles Dryer Sheet bear who ratted him out.

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Science

How To Open A Jar: Like A Boss

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

In giving you the reader something you could actually find useful, here is a technique I developed that makes opening overly-tight fitting jars rather easy. The method takes advantage of leverage and large muscle groups of your arms to twist off the jar lid rather than relying on comparatively weaker muscles serving the wrists and fingers. It works well for those having weak or arthritic hands.  One only needs to have a secure grip in order to open most jars.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Are The Democrats Building A Collapsible Impeachment?

As the impeachment of Donald Trump unfolds, it is inevitable that comparisons are drawn to the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton impeachments. This column in The Hill discusses the most notable distinction: the narrowness of case for impeachment. While Trump has long been portrayed as a type of perpetual criminal motion machine and many have claimed that an array of crimes are proven from the Russian investigation, none of the crimes discussed over the last three years will apparently be included in this impeachment. The question is why. Democratic members insisted after the Mueller hearings that the impeachable acts were now laid bear on the record. If such violations are so obvious and proven, it is unclear why the Democrats are insisting on proceeding on such a narrow basis — a decision that greatly reduces the chances of success in the Senate.

Here is the column:

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Constitutional Law, Courts

Trump Appeals Tax Case To Supreme Court

We previously discussed the line of negative rulings in President Donald Trump’s effort to withhold his tax records from New York prosecutors. The Trump legal team has made, in my view, untenured and unsupportable constitutional claims of immunity. President Trump claims that “the District Attorney’s issuance of criminal process demanding the President’s records violates the immunity that he holds under Article II and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.” That would create an unstated, sweeping immunity under the Constitution — an immunity never suggested, let alone stated, by the Framers. Now, like a bad gambler at Vegas, the team is doubling down again with an appeal to the Supreme Court. This is an example of a bad case making bad law for the presidency.

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Academics, Free Speech, Politics

Impeachment Moves Into High Gear . . . At The University Of Florida

Those of us covering or listening to the Trump impeachment hearing yesterday may have missed the “other” impeachment story this week. At Gainsville, Florida, students are seeking to impeach student president Michael C. Murphy due to the invitation to Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend (and Trump campaign adviser) Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus for speeches on Oct. 10. The couple was paid $50,000 for the speeches. There are even allegations of “collusion.” Student senator Ben Lima declared that “Public records show that Michael Murphy colluded with a member of the Donald Trump campaign” on the event. However, a student newspaper is also reporting that Murphy also sought to have Bernie Sanders appear on campus.

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Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering

Three Indiana Judges Suspended After Late Night Shootout
Judges Andrew Adams, left, Bradley Jacobs and Sabrina Bell have been suspended without pay, according to the Indiana Supreme Court. (Indiana Courts)

I often speak at judicial conferences but clearly I am running with a much slower judicial crowd. Three Indiana judges have been suspended after a late night shootout following heavy drinking and a trip to a White Castle. The controversy left various people shot and under arrest — and three judicial careers in taters.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Schiff Raises Bribery As A Possible Impeachable Offense

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has caused a stir in suddenly injecting the possible use of bribery as a basis for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Converting the Ukrainian controversy into a bribery theory is both constitutionally and historically unsound. It would undermine the credibility of the impeachment effort by struggling to reshape the facts into a more compelling criminal image. Impeachment cannot be an exercise in creative reconstruction. It is not license for imaginative or untested theories of criminality. The House needs to establish a clear and credible theory of impeachable conduct based on well-established definitions. Ironically, I testified on this issue in the Clinton impeachment hearings but last had this argument (over broadening such definitions for purposes of impeachment) with my opposing counsel in the last impeachment trial: Adam Schiff.

Note: I will be doing commentary today with CBS and BBC on the impeachment hearings.

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Academics, Free Speech, Society

Stanford Students Attempt To Silence Another Conservative Speaker In Latest Attack On Free Speech

The fight over free speech on campuses has again erupted in California where a speech by conservative author Ben Shapiro triggered demands that he be barred from campus. The doublespeak used to justify the denial of free speech is particularly chilling. The students insisted that allowing people to hear Shapiro put them at risk: “WE are tired of Stanford Administration’s complicity in putting Black, Brown, Trans, Queer, and Muslim students at risk by allowing SCR to bring Ben Shapiro to campus” On the other side, editors have called his flier anti-Semitic. While these students are intolerant and anti-free speech, but I do not believe that they intended any anti-Semitic message from using this image.

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Criminal law, International

Roman Polanski Accused Of New Rape By Former French Model

The concerted public rehabilitation of Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, 86, took another blow this month after a former French model came forward with a detailed account of a rape that was also supported by two women (including a former girlfriend of Polanski). Valentine Monnier recounted the rape at his chalet to Le Parisien newspaper which allegedly occurred in 1975 when she was 18.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Is Pelosi Saving Trump By Shaping Impeachment To Fail In The Senate?

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the curious profile of the emerging impeachment against President Donald Trump. Notably, while Democratic members have been saying for three years that there are established crimes and impeachable offenses found by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, reports indicate that none of those allegations will be the basis for impeachment. Instead, Democratic members are saying that they want to limit impeachment to the Ukrainian controversy. Not only that, but they want to hold just a couple weeks of public hearings and vote an impeachment vote. If so, this would be the most narrow and least developed impeachment of a president in our history.

Here is the column:

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Lawyering, Media, Torts

David Boies Sues Alan Dershowitz In Latest Defamation Lawsuit Tied To Epstein Scandal
FoxNews Screenshot

Defamation lawsuits are flying New York between leading lawyers involved in the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. We recently discussed a court’s ruling against Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz in his effort to dismiss a defamation case against him. Now, leading litigator David Boies has filed his own defamation lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court. The filing came one day after Dershowitz on Friday — just one day after Dershowitz made accusations against him and his clients in his own defamation lawsuit in federal court.

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