U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner attracted considerable criticism when she declined to recuse herself from a challenge over voter eligibility. Gardner is the sister of Stacey Abrams who has led the effort to register voters in the state. Many felt it was inappropriate for Gardner to rule on the case, a concern that was magnified by her quick rejection of a purging of the rolls of roughly 4000 inactive voters. Now, it appears that Gardner has not recused herself but did reverse herself. A new order has issued upholding the purge in the face of an appeal.
Category: Lawyering
President Donald Trump has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his recent spate of pardons, including corrupt ex-congressmen and the father of Jared Kushner. I was one of those who immediately criticized those pardons as manifestly unjustified and inimical to our legal system. However, none of that makes the comments of senior U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt of the Southern District of Iowa any less troubling. Judge Pratt gave an interview slamming the pardons in a departure from judicial ethics rules barring jurists from engaging in such political commentary.
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the adoption of Trump-like rhetoric and tactics by Democrats, who seem to believe they have a strange type of immunity in the post-Trump world.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Trumpunity: How Democrats Are Adopting Trump Rhetoric and Tactics For The Biden Presidency”
I will admit to being highly critical of Rudy Giuliani’s representation of President Donald Trump for many years (here and here and here and here and here and here and here). He has consistently made statements in interviews that seem diametrically at odds with the interests of his client and his comments have repeatedly forced later corrections or clarifications by the White House or himself. This history led to his prior firm severing ties with him. However, despite that history, nothing prepared me for the video posted by the Recount showing Giuliani breaking off from detailing allegations against Hunter Biden to shill for cigars and gold coins. To be honest, the video comes across as Lionel Hutz of the Simpsons meets Offer Shlomi of ShamWow. Some have raised renewed questions of whether he is helping or hurting his legal team. I do not view this commercial as a bar violation though it raises an increasing issue over the ethical rules governing dual roles of counsel.
I have previously criticized the Lincoln Project which has not only sought to dox Trump attorneys but fund a campaign of harassment targeting Republican lawyers, their firms, and their clients. The project was not only founded in part by lawyer George Conway but is funded by hundreds of lawyers who have remained silent as the Project engaged in such abusive conduct. Now, the Project has been reduced to open trolling with a commercial that literally has no value or purpose other than mocking President Trump. It is now an open trolling operations funded by lawyers around the country. To do so in the name of Abraham Lincoln is a particular disgrace.
Continue reading “The Lincoln Project Moves From Doxxing To Trolling With Recent Commercial”
Below is my column in the Hill on the conclusion of the case of Gen. Michael Flynn, which ended (not surprisingly) with one last gratuitous and controversial act from the court. Judge Emmet Sullivan decided to effectively flog Flynn on his way out of his court.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Flynn’s Cadaver Synod: The Court Dismisses A Dead Case But Not Before It Flogs The Corpse”
Christopher Krebs, has filed a lawsuit against Trump attorney Joe diGenova over this controversial joke that Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” and then “shot” for his failures as the former head of U.S. cybersecurity. The lawsuit strikes me as meritless under governing tort doctrines. While Mark Zaid declared that “no rational person” who heard diGenova calling for a person to be drawn and quartered and then shot “would have taken it as ‘jest,’” many of us took the comment as an obvious use of exaggerated rhetoric. While I immediately condemned the language, I did not view it as a serious call for violence. Torts cases of defamation often turn common understanding of such expression as jokes or opinion. The lawsuit not only contradicts governing case law but threatens constitutional protections for free speech and the free press in seeking such tort relief.
Continue reading “Krebs Files Lawsuit Against diGenova, The Trump Campaign, and Newsmax”
With the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the list of presumed frontrunners for Attorney General is narrowing. One name remains prominently at top: former Associate Attorney General Sally Yates. Yates’ appointment would be one of the most controversial for Biden and would likely lead to an intense confirmation fight over her standoff with President Donald Trump at the start of his Administration as well as her role in the Russian investigation. However, in a strange way, Yates’ controversy could be exactly what both President Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden need if they are looking a basis for a self-pardon.
Continue reading “Is Biden About To Help Make The Case For A Self-Pardon?”
The Trump campaign finally succeeded in one of its challenges yesterday to the extent that it was granted a court order for access and a forensic investigation of roughly two dozen Dominion voting machines. The machines are located in rural Antrim County where roughly 6000 votes were initially assigned to President-elect Joe Biden but then corrected and tabulated in favor of President Donald Trump. Four weeks ago, we discussed this controversy and the concern that such acknowledged human error could occur in other districts. The order from Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, however, concerns not the presidential election but a recounting of ballots in a village marijuana proposal.
We previously discussed the abusive move by Rep. Bill Prascell (D., N.Y.) to seek the disbarment of roughly a dozen Trump and Republican lawyers for challenging election results. Such calls have become common place. Indeed, during the impeachment trial of President Trump, North Carolina Law Professor Michael Gerhardt predicted that the entire Trump legal team would be disbarred after their representation of the President. Now, Democratic Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), have filed a complaint alleging direct violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct against Trump lawyer Joe diGenova for his recent controversial remarks about fired Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency head Chris Krebs. In an interview, diGenova called for Krebs to be “drawn and quartered” for his failure to protect this election. While noting that I did not believe that diGenova was actually calling for violence, I immediately criticized those comments. However, despite the view of ethics professor Stephen Gillers to the contrary, I do not believe that this is even remotely an ethical violation. It is however a clear use of bar rules for a political purpose. Notably, Rice and Lieu, both lawyers, have been utterly silent on the campaign of harassment and abuse by groups like the Lincoln Project. There have been no calls for disbarment of those attorneys or investigations into threats of violence against Republican lawyers. Indeed, I have not read a single lawyer or law firm supporting the Lincoln Project denouncing its campaign to harassment fellow lawyers — a campaign that began shortly after Joe Biden was declared the presumptive winner of the election.
Continue reading “Democratic Members File Bar Complaint Against Trump Counsel Joe diGenova”
We recently discussed how figures like New York Times columnist Tom Friedman calling on people to move to Georgia to rig the vote in favor of a Democratic takeover of the Senate. It did not seem to matter to either the newspaper or Friedman that he was encouraging the commission of a felony. Yet, Friedman is not a lawyer. What is more disconcerting is that lawyers are alleged to be involved in such efforts. Recently, Georgia officials confirmed that they are investigating The New Georgia Project — a group founded by lawyer Stacey Abrams — for allegedly seeking to register out of state voters and deceased individuals. On the Republican side, Florida attorney Bill Price is facing a more direct and serious investigation than Abrams (who has not been personally implicated in such actions). Price is shown in a video boasting of his own registration in Georgia at the home of his brother and encouraging others to do the same. Continue reading “Lawyers Under Investigation For Alleged Fraudulent Voting Schemes In Georgia”
This afternoon I have the pleasure of joining a distinguished panel to speak on the Supreme Court at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law. The event is part of the LACBA Business Law Section 2020 Virtual Institute for Corporate Counsel and will also include Michael J. Gerhardt of UNC School of Law and Pamela S. Karlan of Stanford Law School who testified with me during the Trump impeachment hearing. It will also include Beth S. Brinkmann of Covington & Burling LLP.
Continue reading “Turley To Speak at USC Law School on the Supreme Court”
We have been discussing calls to pack the Supreme Court and President-Elect Joe Biden pledging to assemble a commission of experts to fundamentally change the Supreme Court after it added another conservative justice to the majority. Boston College Law Professor Kent Greenfield is already putting forward one such proposal: just replace the Supreme Court on constitutional questions. Greenfield calls for the establishment of a constitutional court that would strip the Supreme Court of the ability to rule on such question because “the Supreme Court needs a breather.” That “breath” however only became a perceived need for many academics when the conservative conservative on the Court grew to 6-3. Continue reading ““The Supreme Court Needs A Breather”: Law Professor Calls For Replacement of Supreme Court With A “Specialized Court” For Constitutional Questions”
Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page on Friday has filed a $75 million lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former high-ranking officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, and Andrew McCabe. The complaint includes eight claims that range from violations to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Federal Tort Claims Act, a Bivens claim, and Privacy Act. It is very well written, but it will be challenging given the discretionary authority of justice officials in some of these actions. For full disclosure, I previously discussed Page’s case with both Page and his counsel (particularly after a column on his case). I have been a critic of his targeting for years and have spoken with Page on the investigation. I view Page as a victim of an abusive federal investigation and ideally he should be afforded relief for his treatment. Federal case law however presents barriers for people in his position. If he were to prevail, it could create important precedent protecting citizens and civil liberties for the future.
Continue reading “Carter Page Files $75 Million Lawsuit Against The FBI, Comey, McCabe, and Others”
President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a pardon for his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn this week. As someone who has long opposed Trump’s pardons of Trump associates like Roger Stone and Joe Arpaio, I do not come easily to the idea of pardon for someone like Flynn. However, the strongest case for a pardon for Flynn was not made by his lawyers as much as his judge, the Honorable Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan’s continued controversial actions in the case could be cited as a credible, if not a compelling basis, for a pardon of Flynn. Continue reading “The Best Case For A Flynn Pardon May Be The Conduct Of The Court Rather Than The Defendant”