The Fourth Circuit Rejects Trump Appeal To Dismiss Emoluments Case

US-CourtOfAppeals-4thCircuit-SealThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has rejected the effort by President Donald Trump to dismiss a lawsuit alleging a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution due to his accepting foreign government money through his luxury Washington hotel in Washington.  I have been highly skeptical of these lawsuits, a view shared by other courts. The 9-6 opinion, below, however has been misrepresented or misunderstood by some.  It is not a ruling on the merits but rather the technical standard for what is called an interlocutory appeal.  It essentially blocks a Hail Mary play to shutdown the lawsuit.  Nevertheless, the dissenting judges denounced the lawsuit as based on a “wholly novel and nakedly political cause of action.”

Continue reading “The Fourth Circuit Rejects Trump Appeal To Dismiss Emoluments Case”

Judge Sullivan To Consider Perjury Charge Against Flynn

1280px-Emmet_G._Sullivan_2012Federal 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 repeatedly praised him and expressed my respect for his demeanor and directness. However, these orders raised deeply troubling questions of judicial overreach and enmity.  Despite my admiration for Judge Sullivan, I believe he is moving well outside of the navigational beacons for judicial action and could be committing reversible errors if he denies the unopposed motion or moves forward on this perjury claim.

Continue reading “Judge Sullivan To Consider Perjury Charge Against Flynn”

“Please Stop Trying To Gaslight Us”: MSNBC Host Dismisses Biden “Unmasking” Story

Blessed_effects_of_gas_lights_(1814)In a tweet that reflects a common spin in the media, MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell yesterday dismissed the importance of the disclosure that former Vice President Joe Biden requested the “unmasking” of former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Mitchell called Biden’s action “routine” and the story “gaslighting.”  What is striking about this spin is that ignores the fact that Biden, only the day before, denied any involvement in the Flynn investigation or more than passing knowledge of its existence. It also adopts a misleading statistic on the occurrence of such unmasking requests. (I had to share this cartoon entitled “The Blessed Effects of Gas Lights” from London in 1813 on the perceived dangers of gaslighting. It appears the danger remains much the same in the 21st Century).

Continue reading ““Please Stop Trying To Gaslight Us”: MSNBC Host Dismisses Biden “Unmasking” Story”

Serving Like The One Percent: Manafort Released From Prison Under Pandemic Order

ManafortFormer 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.

Continue reading “Serving Like The One Percent: Manafort Released From Prison Under Pandemic Order”

“We Were In A Headless-Chicken Phase”: New York Times Reporter Rebuked By Paper For Anti-Trump Tirade on CNN

“Too Far In The Future To Tell”: Kushner Expresses Uncertainty Over The November Election

936px-Jared_Kushner_June_2019A Time interview by Jared Kushner this week brought an unexpected windfall for the Biden campaign on one of the most embarrassing stories this month. Recently, former Vice President Joe Biden peddled a bizarre conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump had decided to halt the November election.  As I pointed out in a column, the theory showed a striking lack of constitutional knowledge and was legally impossible.  Yet, as if on cue from the Biden campaign, Kushner yesterday swept in and offered critics exactly what they were seeking in saying that it is “too far in the future to tell” whether the November election would be held.  The answer is that it is not “too far” if you have a modicum of constitutional knowledge.  The November election will be held unless there is a coup or an act of collective congressional insanity.

Continue reading ““Too Far In The Future To Tell”: Kushner Expresses Uncertainty Over The November Election”

Loans For The Little Darlings? Strip Clubs Win Another Ruling For Pandemic Relief

downloadWe have been discussing litigation of strip clubs denied pandemic relief, including a recent ruling in favor of such clubs in Nevada.  I have been highly critical of such denials.  Now, another judge, has ruled correctly in favor of these businesses. District Judge Matthew Leitman in Flint, Michigan, issued a preliminary injunction barring the Small Business Administration from excluding businesses that present live performances or sell products of a “prurient sexual nature” from loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. Businessman Jason Mohney who owns various clubs including Little Darlings (left) brought the action.  The Trump Administration is dead wrong in litigating these cases to use the pandemic funds to impose a moral judgment on certain lawful businesses.

Continue reading “Loans For The Little Darlings? Strip Clubs Win Another Ruling For Pandemic Relief”

No, James Comey Did Not Commit Treason

Continue reading “No, James Comey Did Not Commit Treason”

“I Am Being Serious Here”: Yale Professor Denounces Trump For “Genocide” In Response To The Pandemic

200px-Yale_University_Shield_1.svgIn the last three years, various experts have made what they called dispositive cases for crimes by President Donald Trump ranging from hate crimes to treason to inciting violence.  Now Yale University Professor of Epidemiology Dr. Gregg Gonsalves is adding genocide.  Gonsalves is upset with what he views as the “delayed” response by the Trump Administration to the pandemic. That is certainly a legitimate viewpoint that is shared by many and people of good faith can disagree on when the Administration should have acted.  However Gonsalves insists that such a failure to respond a couple weeks earlier is “awfully close to genocide.”  It is is neither genocide nor close to genocide, but Gonsalves later doubled down to make sure that people understood that this is not just hyperbole but he was “being serious here.” He further suggests that this genocidal strategy could be tied to killing minority voters before the election. Gonsalves has appeared widely as an expert in coverage by CNN, NBC, Politico, Foreign Policy magazine, The Washington Post, and other media outlets.

Continue reading ““I Am Being Serious Here”: Yale Professor Denounces Trump For “Genocide” In Response To The Pandemic”

Logan Act Is The Last Refuge For The American Prosecutorial Scoundrel

440px-Michael_T_FlynnBelow is my column in The Hill on a largely overlooked part of the recent material to be released in the Flynn case as well as the testimony released by the House Intelligence Committee: the focus on the Logan Act as the way to charge former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.  Indeed, I recently disagreed with former President Barack Obama on clearly false legal statements made about the Flynn case.  However, within those false statements was a crushing irony.  Obama is mentioned in the documents as discussing the use of the Logan Act against Flynn.  While Obama decried (falsely) the lack of precedent for the dismissal of the Flynn case, he previously discussed the use of a clearly unconstitutional statute against Flynn that has never been used successfully to convict a single person since the start of the Republic.

Continue reading “Logan Act Is The Last Refuge For The American Prosecutorial Scoundrel”

“I Didn’t Know Anything”: Former Obama Official Criticized After Classified Testimony Contradicts Her Public Statements

Screen Shot 2020-05-10 at 1.40.19 PM
YouTube Screenshot

The long-delayed release of testimony from the House Intelligence Committee has proved embarrassing for a variety of former Obama officials who have been extensively quoted on the allegedly strong evidence of collusion by the Trump campaign and the Russians.  Figures like James Clapper, who is a CNN expert, long indicated hat the evidence from the Obama Administration was strong and alarming.  However, in testimony, Clapper denied seeing any such evidence.  One of the most embarrassing is the testimony of  Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama Administration official who was widely quoted in her plea to Congress to gather the evidence that she knew was found in by the Obama Administration. In her testimony under oath Farkas repeatedly stated that she knew of no such evidence of collusion.

Continue reading ““I Didn’t Know Anything”: Former Obama Official Criticized After Classified Testimony Contradicts Her Public Statements”

“A Contradiction In Terms”: Chuck Todd’s “Inadvertent” Journalism

b64fdd78-ff16-11e6-bf00-4be039112d75_1280x720
Screenshot/Youtube

Yesterday, I was critical of a segment by NBC News’ Chuck Todd that addressed the motion to dismiss the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, including the use of a statement by President Obama without noting that he was wrong on the underlying charge and wrong on the absence of precedent (including a high-profile case from his own Administration).  I previously called for the motion that was filed and criticized those who have ignored the clear evidence of prosecutorial abuse, including possible violations of Brady and standing court orders.   It is always unnerving when Todd starts a discussion about the Trump Administration with “it is not partisan to say . . .” During Todd’s questioning of the panel on NBC’s Meet the Press, he used a clearly deceptive clip of a statement by Attorney General Bill Barr to suggest that Barr simply justified his decision as an exercise of raw power.  Both the question and carefully clipped soundbite belie the later statement from Todd’s staff that the misrepresentation of Barr’s words as “inadvertently and inaccurately” edited. However, Todd has not issued an apology and NBC has only issued this brief statement.  Such expectations seem quant relics in this age of rage and echo journalism. Many in the media seem to have embraced Hunter Thompson’s rejection of  “objective journalism” as “a pompous contradiction in terms.” What is a contradiction in terms is this type of inadvertent journalism. (For full disclosure, I testified in favor of Barr’s confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee).

Continue reading ““A Contradiction In Terms”: Chuck Todd’s “Inadvertent” Journalism”

The Future Of The Economy May Depend On An Ancient Doctrine Of The Past

Nighthawks_by_Edward_Hopper_1942Below is my column in The Hill on the legal foundation for an economic recovery in reopening businesses in the United States.  While some often seem to assume a zero tolerance approach for any risk of spread, we have no choice but to try to get this economy out of the current disastrous conditions.  Unless we want to reintroduce a barter economy, we need to stop the exponential growth of debt coupled with the perilous decline of employment.  The key may be individual choice and an ancient legal doctrine.

Continue reading “The Future Of The Economy May Depend On An Ancient Doctrine Of The Past”

President Obama Declares “There Is No Precedent That Anybody Can Find” For The Flynn Motion [He May Want To Call Eric Holder]

President_Barack_Obama Former President Barack Obama is being quoted from a private call that the “rule of law is at risk” after the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Obama reportedly told members of the Obama Alumni Association that “There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free.”  Without doubting the exhaustive search referenced by President Obama, he might have tried calling one “alum”: former Attorney General Eric Holder.  Holder moved to dismiss such a case based on prosecutorial errors in front of the very same judge, Judge Emmet Sullivan. [Notably, CNN covered the statements this morning without noting the clearly false claim over the lack of any precedent for the Flynn motion]

Continue reading “President Obama Declares “There Is No Precedent That Anybody Can Find” For The Flynn Motion [He May Want To Call Eric Holder]”

Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks