We previously discussed the insider trading allegations against Senators Richard Burr (R., N.C.) Dianne Feinstein (D., Cal.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), and Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.) over the selling of stocks after briefings early in the pandemic. As I stated earlier, I am highly skeptical of such cases as a criminal defense attorney as viable due to the difficulty in both the elements and the proof needed for such a charge. Yesterday, the Justice Department dropped three of the four investigations. Only Burr remains under investigation.
Continue reading “DOJ Closes Three Insider Trading Investigations Of U.S. Senators”
We have long discussed the difficult questions raised by private and public employers punishing employees for postings on social media or controversies in their private lives. When employers are identified in the media, controversial statements or conduct can have an obvious backlash against the them, particularly if there is an allegation of racist or discriminatory views. For free speech advocates, this can raise a type of 
We have been discussing curious criminal charges linked to the pandemic but few are quite as bizarre as the charges facing Alexander Michael Sardinas, 37 
We have been 
University of Minnesota Law School Professor Francesco Parisi
We have been 
Below is my column in USA Today on concerns over the recent orders of U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. As leading lawyers, including 
The pandemic has cost many thousands of lives, millions of jobs, and destroyed the global economy. However, there are some who are pandemic beneficiaries and Michael Cohen can now call himself among them. The former fixer (and now sworn enemy) of President Donald Trump will be released early from a federal prison in New York to serve the remainder of this three-year sentence as a true one percenter. For a lawyer who bragged of his special treatment and special access, he is finally serving his sentence in his signature style. His case also raises an interesting dynamic for the 
There is yet another criminal allegation being raised by legal analysts against President Donald Trump. It seems that every controversial statement by Trump is immediately reframed in criminal terms by the very same experts who declared a myriad of other crimes over the last three years. The latest criminal allegation stems from Trump’s tweet that claimed 
For decades, the legal community has decried common practices used by prosecutors to coerce pleas from defendants. Prosecutors often stack up charges and then drain defendants until they agree to pleading guilty. There was a time when such abuses were regularly called out in leading newspapers. These are not those times. 
For years, many of us who have long supporteded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have grown alarmed by its abandonment of core principles in the support of civil liberties in favor of support what seems a more political agenda. Under the leadership of a President 
For weeks, we have discussed how the media, Democratic members, and a wide variety commentators have adopted a different standard in dealing with the allegation of sexual assault against Joe Biden. As soon as the presumptive Democratic nominee was accused, the rallying cry from the Kavanaugh hearing that “all women must be believed” was dropped. This week, the question may not be the applicability of the Kavanaugh standard but the Sessions standard. The recent declassification of documents shows that United Nations ambassador Samantha Power sought to unmask Michael Flynn’s name not once but 
Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has issued a couple of extraordinary orders in the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case. Sullivan has not only decided to allow third parties to argue against an uncontested motion in a criminal case, but he has appointed retired judge John Gleeson to argue against dismissal and address whether Flynn should face a perjury charge from the Court itself. I have practiced in front of Judge Sullivan for many years. I have 
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the latest high-profile inmate to be a beneficiary of the pandemic. Manafort was released from prison today due to the danger of his contracting the virus. He will now be serving his 7.5 year sentence in the considerable luxury of his residence. That is hardly hard time but Manafort, who is 71 with a history of liver and respiratory issues, is clearly a high-risk for a lethal exposure of the coronavirus.
Speaking as an “experienced prosecutor,” President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, accused former FBI Director James Comey of treason. In an interview with John Catsimatidis on “The Cat’s Roundtable,”