Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Are The Democrats Building A Collapsible Impeachment?

As the impeachment of Donald Trump unfolds, it is inevitable that comparisons are drawn to the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton impeachments. This column in The Hill discusses the most notable distinction: the narrowness of case for impeachment. While Trump has long been portrayed as a type of perpetual criminal motion machine and many have claimed that an array of crimes are proven from the Russian investigation, none of the crimes discussed over the last three years will apparently be included in this impeachment. The question is why. Democratic members insisted after the Mueller hearings that the impeachable acts were now laid bear on the record. If such violations are so obvious and proven, it is unclear why the Democrats are insisting on proceeding on such a narrow basis — a decision that greatly reduces the chances of success in the Senate.

Here is the column:

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Constitutional Law, Courts

Trump Appeals Tax Case To Supreme Court

We previously discussed the line of negative rulings in President Donald Trump’s effort to withhold his tax records from New York prosecutors. The Trump legal team has made, in my view, untenured and unsupportable constitutional claims of immunity. President Trump claims that “the District Attorney’s issuance of criminal process demanding the President’s records violates the immunity that he holds under Article II and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.” That would create an unstated, sweeping immunity under the Constitution — an immunity never suggested, let alone stated, by the Framers. Now, like a bad gambler at Vegas, the team is doubling down again with an appeal to the Supreme Court. This is an example of a bad case making bad law for the presidency.

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Academia, Free Speech, Politics

Impeachment Moves Into High Gear . . . At The University Of Florida

Those of us covering or listening to the Trump impeachment hearing yesterday may have missed the “other” impeachment story this week. At Gainsville, Florida, students are seeking to impeach student president Michael C. Murphy due to the invitation to Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend (and Trump campaign adviser) Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus for speeches on Oct. 10. The couple was paid $50,000 for the speeches. There are even allegations of “collusion.” Student senator Ben Lima declared that “Public records show that Michael Murphy colluded with a member of the Donald Trump campaign” on the event. However, a student newspaper is also reporting that Murphy also sought to have Bernie Sanders appear on campus.

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Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering

Three Indiana Judges Suspended After Late Night Shootout
Judges Andrew Adams, left, Bradley Jacobs and Sabrina Bell have been suspended without pay, according to the Indiana Supreme Court. (Indiana Courts)

I often speak at judicial conferences but clearly I am running with a much slower judicial crowd. Three Indiana judges have been suspended after a late night shootout following heavy drinking and a trip to a White Castle. The controversy left various people shot and under arrest — and three judicial careers in taters.

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Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Schiff Raises Bribery As A Possible Impeachable Offense

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has caused a stir in suddenly injecting the possible use of bribery as a basis for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Converting the Ukrainian controversy into a bribery theory is both constitutionally and historically unsound. It would undermine the credibility of the impeachment effort by struggling to reshape the facts into a more compelling criminal image. Impeachment cannot be an exercise in creative reconstruction. It is not license for imaginative or untested theories of criminality. The House needs to establish a clear and credible theory of impeachable conduct based on well-established definitions. Ironically, I testified on this issue in the Clinton impeachment hearings but last had this argument (over broadening such definitions for purposes of impeachment) with my opposing counsel in the last impeachment trial: Adam Schiff.

Note: I will be doing commentary today with CBS and BBC on the impeachment hearings.

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Academia, Free Speech, Society

Stanford Students Attempt To Silence Another Conservative Speaker In Latest Attack On Free Speech

The fight over free speech on campuses has again erupted in California where a speech by conservative author Ben Shapiro triggered demands that he be barred from campus. The doublespeak used to justify the denial of free speech is particularly chilling. The students insisted that allowing people to hear Shapiro put them at risk: “WE are tired of Stanford Administration’s complicity in putting Black, Brown, Trans, Queer, and Muslim students at risk by allowing SCR to bring Ben Shapiro to campus” On the other side, editors have called his flier anti-Semitic. While these students are intolerant and anti-free speech, but I do not believe that they intended any anti-Semitic message from using this image.

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Criminal law, International

Roman Polanski Accused Of New Rape By Former French Model

The concerted public rehabilitation of Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, 86, took another blow this month after a former French model came forward with a detailed account of a rape that was also supported by two women (including a former girlfriend of Polanski). Valentine Monnier recounted the rape at his chalet to Le Parisien newspaper which allegedly occurred in 1975 when she was 18.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Is Pelosi Saving Trump By Shaping Impeachment To Fail In The Senate?

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the curious profile of the emerging impeachment against President Donald Trump. Notably, while Democratic members have been saying for three years that there are established crimes and impeachable offenses found by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, reports indicate that none of those allegations will be the basis for impeachment. Instead, Democratic members are saying that they want to limit impeachment to the Ukrainian controversy. Not only that, but they want to hold just a couple weeks of public hearings and vote an impeachment vote. If so, this would be the most narrow and least developed impeachment of a president in our history.

Here is the column:

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Lawyering, Media, Torts

David Boies Sues Alan Dershowitz In Latest Defamation Lawsuit Tied To Epstein Scandal
FoxNews Screenshot

Defamation lawsuits are flying New York between leading lawyers involved in the Jeffrey Epstein controversy. We recently discussed a court’s ruling against Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz in his effort to dismiss a defamation case against him. Now, leading litigator David Boies has filed his own defamation lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court. The filing came one day after Dershowitz on Friday — just one day after Dershowitz made accusations against him and his clients in his own defamation lawsuit in federal court.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Free Speech, Politics

“I’m Fixing To Get Rowdy”: Baby Trump Knifed In Alabama

In another example of our age of rage, Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, took a knife to the famous “Baby Trump” protest balloon that has followed President Donald Trump from England to the United States. Hutchinson reportedly stated on a video that “I’m going down here to make a scene, so y’all watch the news. This is pathetic. I’m fixing to get rowdy.” In a sign of our times, people have donated money to support him in this property destruction. Many now believe that they have a privilege to stop others from speaking. Conservatives have rightfully objected to such disruptive acts on campus, but this is a conservative who is being heralded for his own anti-free speech act. A similar act of destruction was committed by a woman in London who was upset with the protest balloon’s appearance.

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Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics

No, The U.S. Does Not Need European-Style Hate Speech Laws

Below is my column in USA Today on the latest calls for limiting free speech and imposing censorship on political speech. Last week, we discussed the refusal of students to allow former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to speak at Northwestern University and a New Yorker writer calling for the curtailment of free speech. These attacks are coming largely from the left where speech criminalization and censorship has become an article of faith for activists and some Democratic members.

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Animals, Bizarre, Criminal law

Wisconsin Man Arrested For Driving Intoxicated With Chicken On His Shoulder

According to WDJT, a Wisconsin man was pulled over by police after calls of a possible DUI driver with a hawk on his shoulder. Police pulled over Ernesto Martinez-Garnica and found a brown chicken in the car. The chicken was sober but Martinez-Garnica was not, according to police. The chicken’s name is Teresa.

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