Below is my column in USA Today on the assertion of President Donald Trump that he can pardon himself. Since such an act would be the most profoundly disgraceful moment in the history of the American presidency, it is chilling to have a president to even engage in such a public debate. However, I believe that such a power does exist in the Constitution. It is a long and unresolved debate that turns on how you interpret silence. Since the Constitution is silent on any bar against a president benefitting from this power, I believe that a self-pardon is indeed constitutional, even if distasteful. Continue reading “Trump Can Indeed Pardon Himself . . . And We Should Now Never Speak Of This Again”
Category: Criminal law
Lieutenant Joshua Philip Yabut, 29, apparently thinks a luxury SUV or a corvette is not grand enough for grand theft auto. Instead, he went with the M577 armored command vehicle, which he stole from Fort Pickett, a Virginia Army National Guard facility. He then took police on a 60-mile chase. Yahut previously sought to run against Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) but failed to file the proper forms.
In a major development, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter has ordered that President Donald Trump must sit for seven hours of questioning in the defamation case of former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos. The case is a defamation action is linked to Zervos’ allegation of sexual harassment by Trump. In April, I wrote a column warning that Trump’s local counsel in various states were recklessly using presidential privilege and immunity arguments to try to kill various lawsuits. Now, just as Trump’s team appears to be moving away from a sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he will have to submit to a grueling, high-risk deposition in New York. The obvious analogies to the Bill Clinton scandal and impeachment are inescapable. Continue reading “Court: Trump Must Appear For Seven Hour Deposition In Defamation Case”
In what must be a particularly awkward move for the former acting FBI Director, Andrew McCabe has demanded immunity in exchange for his testimony from the Senate Judiciary Committee. As we have discussed, McCabe has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his criminal defense and the Inspector General referred his case for possible prosecution for lying to investigators. The Senate wants to hear his testimony on how senior officials at the FBI and Justice Department handled the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Just days after President Donald Trump was seen as sending a message to Mueller targets that he could still help them with pardons, Special Counsel Bob Mueller could be sending a message of his own: your future may belong to the President but your present belongs to me. In a major move, Mueller has accused Paul Manafort of witness tampering and is seeking his possible jailing in an adjustment of his pre-trial status. For someone like Manafort, jail can be a panic-inducing element in an already nightmarish case. The motion seeks to “revoke or revise” his current status of home confinement before trial.
Continue reading “Mueller Accuses Manafort Of Witness Tampering And Seeks Jail”
There is an interesting (and rather disgusting) case out of Idaho where science teacher Robert Crosland is facing six months in jail after a national controversy over his feeding of a live puppy to a snapping turtle in front of students in his class at Preston Junior School. The exercise would ultimately lead to the death of both the puppy and the turtle in addition to the criminal prosecution of Crosland.
As I discussed on Morning Joe this morning, I was surprised when President Trump’s counsel Rudolf Giuliani declared in an interview that Trump could have shot James Comey in the Oval Office and not faced indictment under the Constitution. For those of us who have long argued against sweeping immunity arguments in favor of presidents, this is the hypothetical that we often raise to prove our point. It is bizarre to hear someone use it as an argument in favor of such immunity claims. I have previously written that I believe a sitting president can be indicted. Article II is not where the homicidal meets the constitutional.
Continue reading “Guiliani: Trump Could Have Shot Comey In Oval Office And Not Face Indictment”
Below is my column in USA Today on one of the lines of inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller: the stated desire of President Donald Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his poor public criticism of the Attorney General for recusing. That inquiry has become more damaging with recent disclosures of an effort by Trump to convince or coerce Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse himself. Despite renewed calls for obstruction charges or impeachment counts, there is a clear defense emerging for Trump based on recent comments. Indeed, it may be the only viable defense that accepts these facts while rejecting the claim of criminal obstruction (other than the untested claim that Trump is effectively immune from such a charge).
Here is the column:
In yet another contradiction from the Trump legal team, the recent letter to Special Counsel Robert Mueller included the notable admission that Trump “dictated” the statement that is at the center of the obstruction investigation. Previously, Trump lawyers, particularly Jay Sekulow, categorically denied that Trump had drafted the letter. Once again, these are continuing unforced errors produced by either a failure of attorney-client communications or a lack of due diligence. Either way, it is an example of how much of his investigation has been fueled by sheer blunders.
Continue reading “Trump Team Admits President Dictated Trump Jr. Letter Despite Prior Denials”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the continuing attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. There is obviously an effort to push Sessions into resigning while laying the groundwork for firing him if he is still around after the completion of the Mueller report. Sessions on the other hand is standing firm, a position that is clearly encouraged by career officers at Justice who view the threats as undermining the integrity of the department.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Sessions And How No Good Deed Goes Unpunished In Washington”
Toni Ann Branca, 42, was a loyal customer at Victoria’s Secret, but the problem was that she was far less loyal to her employer, Apple. Branca is accused of buying considerable amounts of merchandize from the lingerie business as part of a $243,000 embezzlement scheme. This proved the one secret that she could not take after the charges on a company credit card were detected by Apple.
Former high school dean Shaun Harrison, 58, has been found guilty in one of the most bizarre and disturbing criminal cases in Boston. Harrison was an anti-violence advocate that the students called “the Rev.” He turned out to be a drug dealer who shot a student who was selling pot for him.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Carmen Puliafito, 67, the former Dean at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, was pushed into drug use by a 21-year-old former prostitute named Sarah Warren. His counsel argued that the Harvard-trained ophthalmologist is bipolar and became “addicted” to the young woman who led him into perdition.
I have been a long critic of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen for over a year for his thuggish and often incompetent practice of law. He has matched his lack of legal skills with an abundance of greed, including blatant efforts to sell access to Trump to foreigners and private companies. Now people can listen to Cohen in his own voice as he performed his signature function for Trump: threatening a reporter for the Daily Beast and his acquaintances with ruin if he ran a negative story about a 1993 Trump biography.