Category: Lawyering

Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering, Society

New York Lawyer Arrested For Throwing Kids Out of Car

madlyn_primoff1primoff_madlynMadlyn Primoff, 45, a partner at Kaye Scholer specializing in international financial matters spent the night in jail and is facing criminal charges after she allegedly throw her two daughters, 10 and 12, out of her car on the side of the road. One daughter succeeded in catching up with the car and jumping back in while the ten-year-old was found by another adult. Primoff reported the second daughter missing and was arrested when she went to the police station. She was carried with a misdemeanor count of endangering child welfare.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Leahy Calls for Judge Bybee’s Resignations and Others Call for Impeachment

180px-bybee1160px-patrick_leahy_official_photoSen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for Judge Jay Bybee to resign in light of his central role in the torture program and memos. Leahy declared that “[t]he fact is, the Bush administration and Mr. Bybee did not tell the truth. If the Bush administration and Mr. Bybee had told the truth, he never would have been confirmed.”
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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society

Harman Refuses to Confirm Conversation With Suspected Israeli Spy and Calls Interception of Her Calls an “Abuse of Power”

160px-harman_jane300px-aipac_logoRep. Jane Harman, D-California, has called the alleged interception of her calls with a suspected spy “an abuse of power” and has called for the transcripts of the call to be given to her. As suggested in an earlier blog, she has promised to make the transcript public if given to her. However, she would not confirm the conversation while denying any quid pro quo arrangement to help accused American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists — Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman — in exchange for AIPAC’s help in securing the House Intelligence Committee Chairmanship. While Harman is reported as ending the call with the statement that “This conversation doesn’t exist,” she now denies that the conversation existed as reported in the media.

Notably, the same week that this conversation was revealed, the Administration is reportedly considering dropping charges against the AIPAC lobbyists — precisely what the AIPAC contact reported demanded from Harman in her help to reduce or dismiss charges.

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Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Society

Gilded Cage: Jailbird Contractor Sentenced to Live in the $5 Million Mansion That He Upgraded Through His Tax Evasion Scheme

250px-de_morgan_-_guilded_cageNow this is a sentence that most of my clients would relish. Pittsburgh contractor William G. Tomko Jr. was convicted of using his $5 million mansion as part of a tax evasion scheme where he avoided $228,000 in taxes by having work on the mansion disguised as payments for work done at five area schools. U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster sentenced Tomko to have to live in the mansion as his punishment under a sentence of three years’ probation with one year to be spent on house arrest. Tomko’s cell will be a 8,000-square-foot mansion on eight acres and with $1.8 million in furnishings and $81,000 in fine art. I hope that he can hold up under the pressure of living in this particular cellblock. A divided court of appeals panel has upheld the sentence.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Society

President Obama Leaves Open Possibility of Prosecutions for Torture While His Intelligence Director Affirms That the Torture Program Was Successful

225px-official_portrait_of_barack_obama230px-dennis_blair_official_director_of_national_intelligence_portraitPresident Obama reversed earlier statements statements made as late as this weekend from Raum Emmanuel and others that he did not want anyone — low level or high level officials — prosecuted for torture. In a clear break from his past statements, Obama insisted that the matter had to be left to Attorney General Eric Holder. We discussed this latest development on this segment of MSNBC Countdown. In the meantime, the Administration leaked a memo from Intelligence Director Dennis Blair that said that the torture program yielded new information — part of a new emerging argument that torture works that was also recently advanced by former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Lawyering, Military, Society, Torts

KBR Memos Reveal Knowledge of Dangerous Conditions Before Sending Drivers Into Fire Fight

kbr_logoThe lawsuit against KBR by the families of civilian drivers killed in an ambush in Iraq in 2004 have been strengthened by internal memos showing that KBR officials knew of the insurgent activity and high level of danger before sending them into harm’s way.

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Congress, Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Feinstein Accused of Self-Dealing in $25 Billion Legislation for FDIC

225px-dianne_feinstein_official_senate_photoSen. Diane Feinstein (D., Ca.) is embroiled in an expanding controversy over her introduction of legislation to give $25 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that awarded a highly generous contract to her husband. Feinstein is notably not on any committee with jurisdiction in this area and this legislation was unusual for her. The scandal, once again, shows the calculated decision of Senators to preserve loopholes that allow them to invest or have interests in areas where they legislate and vote.
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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society

Torture Works: Cheney Unrolls New Campaign to Justify War Crimes

225px-richard_cheney_2005_official_portraittorture -abu ghraibAfter refusing to release even unclassified materials as Vice President, former Vice President Dick Cheney is now calling for the release of all interrogation reports to show that torture works. This is the same Cheney who supported the denial of such evidence to courts and criminal defendants and Congress. However, now that calls for prosecution for war crimes are increasing, Cheney suddenly believes in transparency in government. In the meantime, Obama has reversed earlier statements and indicated that he will not rule out prosecutions of Bush officials. We discussed this latest development on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics

Two Leading Lawyers Face Shoplifting Allegations in Two Separate Cases

guymon1This week involved not one but two leading lawyers nailed for shoplifting. In Wichita, Troy Ellis the former chief counsel at Invista was forced to resign after filmed allegedly stealing food from the company cafeteria. In the meantime, in Utah, former prosecutor Gary Guymon (left) was arrested for stealing a necklace from a jewelry shop at a resort.
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Constitutional Law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society

United Nations Official Strongly Suggests That Obama Is In Violation International Law in Refusing to Investigate War Crimes

225px-official_portrait_of_barack_obama125px-flag_of_the_united_nationssvgU.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak has gone public with a stinging indictment of President Barack Obama’s failure to investigate and prosecute officials for the American torture program, a clear war crime under existing treaties. Obama is in open violation of international law due to his failure to uphold the clear legal and moral obligations of this country.
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Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, International, Justice, Lawyering, Military, Politics, Society

Memo: Bush Administration Tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 Times

khalid_shaikh_mohammed_2One of the more shocking revelation from the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Unless I am missing something, that would mean that that KSM was tortured roughly six times a day.
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