Andrew Jackson Higdon III may be unique among accused felons. While burglars and thieves have been known to take a variety of novel items, how many are accused of actually carting away the actual roof?
Continue reading “Louisiana Contractor Charged With Carting Away Woman’s Roof”
California reached a milestone recently in its immigration laws: the state has now given over one million illegal or undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses. Passed in 2013 by sponsor Luis Alejo, Assembly Bill 60 required the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants as long as they can prove their identity and residence within the state. As of March 31st, some 1,001,000 undocumented immigrants have received licenses. The state has reached this goal at a time when it is on a collision course with the Trump Administration on immigration enforcement as well as some of its own cities. The result is rising rhetoric on both sides and an inevitable court fight.
I have previously written how Trump personal counsel Michael Cohen has left himself utterly exposed ethically in his effort to protect the President from the brewing scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen has struggled to deny any connection of the payoff to Daniels to the President or Trump organization. It is for that reason that a new document released by Daniels’ counsel (and my former research assistant) Michael Avenatti is so curious. The arbitration documents include the listing of Trump Organization Vice President and lawyer Jill A. Martin. Martin is listed as counsel for Essential Consultants LLC, a shell Delaware company formed by Cohen to help disguise the payment of the $130,000 to Daniels (whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford). The arbitration documents in Orange County, California were signed on February 22 — less than a month ago. It is bizarre that, given the huge effort to insulate Trump and his organization from this payment, Martin would effectively intervene in this way.Continue reading “Trump Org Lawyer Tied To Effort To Gag Stormy Daniels In Arbitration Proceedings”
On Tuesday, March 6, at noon, I will have the pleasure of speaking as part of the screening of Democracy’s Messengers: The Never-Before-Told Story of Young Americans on Capitol Hill at the National Archives. Narrated by Cokie Roberts, the film Democracy’s Messengers tells the story our page system. I was a House page in 1978-79 and eventually served as a House Leadership Page. I will be part of a panel discussing our experiences ij the program. Register to attend online. You can also watch the program live streamed on the National Archives YouTube channel.
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”
Colton Haab, a survivor of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has appeared on national television to voice his allegation that CNN tried to get him to read a scripted question at the network’s recent Town Hall event with survivors and leading politicians. The allegation led President Donald Trump to tweet that CNN had been caught in an act of “fake news.” Now however CNN has posted the original email and accused Haab of “doctoring” the emails and lying about its exchange with its producer. If CNN is doctoring the emails (which is unlikely), Haab could sue for defamation. However, the network says that critical language was removed by Haab or his family.
Continue reading “CNN Accuses Florida Student Cited By President As Lying About Scripted Question”
You know you are on the outs with the President when he not only unleashes an army of citizen trolls on you, but demotes you from plural to singular. President Trump posted another controversial tweet this morning in asking why he is being investigated but not his predecessor or the Democrats. He tells supporters to Just “Ask Jeff Session.” Attorney General Sessions appears to still be the persona non grata and, if anything, diminishing by the day.
Continue reading “Singular Demotion: Trump Tells Citizens “Ask Jeff Session!””
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged Dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan. The charge however is another false statement indictment and is not tied to Russian collusion. Rather Van Der Zwaan was interviewed in rather to dealing concerning Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice in 2012. The expected guilty plea certainly adds to the prosecution cases but remains far removed from the Trump campaign. It is more likely related to the Paul Manafort prosecution.
Continue reading “Mueller Charges New Defendant: Alex Van Der Zwaan”
The Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Canada has a course for law students on Aboriginal & Indigenous Law in Context class. As part of that course, students were given a list of suggestions by the professor for dealing with their colonial pasts and acknowledging indigenous peoples. This includes a suggestion to “update your email signature to reflect the territory you live and work on.” One of the points included a new category for recognition (at least in my experience). The school told students “when discussing LGBTQ issues, always include two-spirited peoples (LGBTQ2S).”
We have previously discussed the courage of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Muslim nations in fighting sexist rules that prevent them from engaging in basic acts or pursuing their own futures. As I have said before, these women are the most inspiring civil libertarians of our generation — risking jail and beatings to fight for equality. That struggle is evident in the dozens of arrests of women in Iran who are pulling off their headscarves in public in Iran to fight for the individual choice in wearing the religious cover. One activist Masih Alinejab has gone further to denounce Western feminists and reporters who celebrate the selling of a Barbie doll with a veil while giving minimal attention to actual women fighting the mandatory wearing of such items.
There is nothing so frustrating as pulling up to a Taco Bell only to have the drive thru person repeatedly refuse to take your order . . . unless of course it is a bank. That was the dilemma of Douglas Francisco, 28, who is accused of being drunk when he pulled into the Bank of America in Tampa and demanded a burrito. If Francisco wants to fulfill the chain’s slogan of “Live Mas,” he might want to drive less.
Another major case has been thrown out due to prosecutorial abuse by the United States Department of Justice. We have previously discussed cases where federal prosecutors have withheld evidence and filed false or misleading statements to the court. Now, U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro has issued a dismissal with prejudice against the Justice Department in the case against Cliven Bundy and his sons due to what Navarro describes as flagrant and knowing violations of professional ethics and federal law by the Justice Department. In past cases, the Justice Department has shown little commitment to discipline, let alone terminate, anyone for the violations (or the waste of millions of dollars). In this case, however, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called for a review of the case.
The University of Virginia has reversed a decision of VA student council to refuse to recognize a conservative student organization because it catered to conservative students. This absurd decision was based, according to Ty Zirkle, UVA student council’s vice president for organizations, on a strained reading of state law. The decision was in sharp contrast to other groups which cater to shared viewpoints. The concern should be with the selective application of this perceived rule by the student council.
With much fanfare months ago, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump had violated the emoluments clause. The constitutional challenge was billed as meant “to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments.” I previously stated that the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Throws Out Emoluments Complaint Against President Trump”
President Donald Trump recently entered into the national debate over the NFL protests by criticizing football players taking a knee before games during the national anthem. Some were enraged and called for his impeachment — a call that I previously discussed as unfounded and dangerous. I saw no reason why the President was out of line in giving his opinion on the controversy. There is however an even more pressing matter involving an American professional athlete that would warrant a strong and public statement from President Trump. He is New York Knicks player Enes Kanter who is the subject of an abusive charge in Turkey for allegedly insulting its blood-soaked authoritarian leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Trump should publicly support Kanter and his right to exercise free speech — a right that Erdogan has curtailed in Turkey in his crackdown on dissidents and journalists alike.