According to Hartford police, Jonathan Rivera, 25, has curious way of contesting charges of car theft. Rivera is accused of driving in a stolen vehicle to Superior Court.
Continue reading “Accused Car Thief Is Arrested After Driving To Court In Stolen Car”
Yesterday, there was a troubling story in the New York Times that President Donald Trump had two conversations with witnesses in the Mueller investigation about matters touching on their statements to investigators. Both former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House CounselDonald F. McGahn II reportedly were the subjects of inquiries by Trump that raised concerns over witness tampering and, in McGahn’s case, eliciting a false public statement. As I explained this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, I do not view the accounts as establishing witness tampering violations but the conversations were clearly inappropriate and ill-advised. Moreover, they can be legitimately pursued by the Special Counsel and fit a narrative that is being advanced by critics. The failure to respect legal and ethical boundaries has been a constant and continuing problem for this White House. Nevertheless, there is an obvious defense to such charges and, as I explained on MSNBC, people are again ignoring the actual criminal elements to this offense. Putting that aside, there should be concern that this is yet another tripped wire that should have been avoided.
Continue reading “Report: McGahn Refused To Issue Statement Denying Trump’s Desire To Fire Mueller”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the reported determination of the Inspector General that former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe misled investigators about a leak to the media. There may be a question of consistency in criminally charging Michael Flynn for the same alleged act. People continue to spin this issue by noting (as the piece states) that Flynn agreed to this false statement crime as part of a plea bargain with more serious potential crimes. However, that misses the point. Prosecutors are required to apply the criminal code evenly. They are not allowed the luxury of a criminal charge that can be easily applied to a wide array of people at their discretion. It makes it very difficult for people to contest a criminal charge when prosecutors can simply criminalize any inaccurate or misleading statement while ignoring the same conduct in others. It is particularly concerning when the favorable parties are fellow prosecutors or government officials. My argument is not that we should have more false statement charges. Rather, there has long been a problem in the use of this provision which has been applied in an arbitrary manner.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “If Andrew McCabe Lied, Could He Be Charged Like Michael Flynn?”
The Texas Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso has thrown out the conviction of Terry Lee Morris after Judge George Gallagher ordered him to be shocked with a stun belt to induce him to “follow the rules.” Gallagher’s actions were a disgrace and constitutes at a minimum assault upon a defendant. He should be removed from the bench for his actions in the 2014 trial. It is astonishing that he remains on the bench after such abuse of a criminal defendant. I have been a long critic of stun belts in court.
I previously wrote about how the payments to both a former porn star and a former Playboy bunny could prove a greater threat to President Donald Trump than the still unsubstantiated collusion allegations that led to the appointment of the Special Counsel. Now, one of those woman is formally in court after Stormy Daniels (AKA Stephanie Clifford) filed an action against President Trump. I have previously criticized counsel for both Trump and Daniels for bizarre actions in this controversy and this lawsuit is no exception. The lawsuit introduces new facts including the allegation that President Trump’s lawyer used a fake name for the President, David Dennison, as part of this effort to pay what the complaint calls “hush money.” After differing accounts by Daniels, she has not only stated that she did have a year long affair (something Trump’s counsel has denied) but stated it in a court filing as opposed to a tabloid newspaper.
Continue reading “Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Over “Hush Money” Agreement”
Nashville mayor Megan Barry has resigned and pleaded guilty to felony theft as part of her affair with her police bodyguard. We often debate whether a politician should give a smiling mugshot (and risk looking non-contrite) or a frowning mugshot (and risk looking guilty). Barry went with the smiling option. She will now face three years probation and a criminal fine.
Continue reading “Nashville Mayor Resigns And Pleads Guilty To Felony Theft”
In Illinois, the Des Plaines Police Department has arrested three employees of the Kiddie Junction day care facility after allegedly discovering that the women gave children gummy bears laced with the sleep aid melatonin without parental consent. Ashley Helfenbein, 25, Jessica Heyse, 19, and Kristen Lauletta, 32, were charged with endangering children and battery. The battery charge is clear since the parents thought that they were paying for Kiddie Junction, not Kiddie Junkies. The endangerment charge could result in some challenges.
It was another breathless bombshell evening last night as media proclaimed that a “Former Trump Aide” said that he believed Trump “may very well have done something during the election with the Russians.” CNN carried a series of bizarre interviews with Sam Nunberg who was refusing to comply with a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to produce documents and appear before a grand jury. Nunberg spouted off a series of accusations against Carter Page and others that were immediately picked up as potential confirmation of collusion. However, each CNN interviews made it more and more clear that the network had a virtual freak on a leash. Soon Nunberg denounced Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a “fat slob” and telling her to shut her “big fat mouth.” Nunberg was clearly neither credible nor under control but he drove the coverage for hours as a former aide supporting Russian collusion theories. It was part of our new media: NASCAR journalism where media rushes figures like Nunberg in front of cameras and viewers watch for the inevitable crash. Update: Nunberg now is saying that he will cooperate after all.
Continue reading “Sam Nunberg and Last Night’s NASCAR Press Pileup [Updated]”
Below is my column in USA Today on the legislation proposed to combat Russian trolling and Internet campaigns. There is a serious threat to free speech in these measures, which mirror efforts from (ironically) countries like Russia and China. The serious threat is not a handful of Russians playing on our deep divisions, but rather the hacking operations and attempt to interfere with voting systems.
Here is the column:
President Donald Trump and Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu meet today in the White House as a critical moment for both leaders. It is not just a common interest in Middle East peace that they have in common in this meeting. Both men now have key aides who have been cooperating witnesses for prosecutions investigating allegations of wrongdoing. While there is still not direct evidence implicating Trump, Netanyahu is facing a serious threat of indictment, particularly after his former key aides, Nir Hefetz and Shlomo Filber have agreed to testify against him. These witnesses are far closer to Netanyahu and are cooperating on criminal cases directly linked to Netanyahu — as opposed to the collateral crimes thus far addressed by the Special Counsel. One other difference is the respective Constitutional issues. As I discussed recently, Israel has long accepted that a Prime Minister can be indicted in office. I believe that the same is true for a president, but there is a long and good-faith debate over the question.
I recently criticized the new Polish law criminalizing any statements attributing the genocide of Jews to Polish forces or actions. The legislature approved a bill making it a crime to use statements suggesting Poland bears responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany. You could receive up to three years in prison for calling Auschwitz-Birkenau a “Polish death camp.” USNews is reporting that the first target of this abusive law has now been announced: the Argentine Pagina 12 daily. The newspaper was accused of breaching a new law by suggesting that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.
Continue reading “Controversial Polish Holocaust Denial Law Takes On Its First Media Target”
Keri Karman, 25, and Charles Karman, 61, were reportedly irritated by a two-year-old in a movie that kept asking for popcorn. Karman allegedly responded to the demand (and an argument with the mother) by dumping a bucket of popcorn on the child. They are now charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
We have often discussed the relatively low sentences handed out for animal abuse in the United States. A major exception to that pattern occurred this week in Plano, Texas where Judge Mark Rusch sentenced Andrew Callaway to 12 years in prison for animal cruelty and a probation violation. Callaway stomped on a boxer puppy named Diesel and threw it against a wall. The puppy later had to be put down due to the devastating injuries caused by Callaway, who told police he was upset at the time and regretted taking it out against the dog. Most of the sentence was for the probation violation.
Saying that “I’ve known Bob Mueller for 20, 30 years”, former Attorney General Eric Holder said on national television that Trump will be charged with obstruction of justice. Holder does not indicate why he is so confident or the specific basis for an obstruction charge. I have previously stated that I do not see a credible obstruction charge on the available evidence.Continue reading “Holder: Mueller Is Going To Charge Trump With Obstruction”
Erik Graeff, 42, is a Vancouver lawyer based in Oregon who is accused of taking a dispute with a former co-counsel to an extraordinary level in allegedly firing several shots into the Beaverton office of Terrence Hogan. No one was hit in the office but one bullet barely missed an Administrative Assistant. Graeff is reportedly a former decorated sniper in the Marines.