 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33110348&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense so far hasn’t tried to counter prosecutors’ portrayal of him as a “cartoon of a villain,” Luc Cohen reports. But the crypto mogul’s defense case could start later this week. Plus, the justices lifted an order curbing the Biden administration’s social media contacts; conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom says it stands ready to train Southwest Airlines attorneys on workplace religious freedom; and Burger King wants plaintiffs’ lawyers punished for their Whopper of a suit. It’s a sizzling legal news Monday.
Were you forwarded this email? Subscribe here.
|
FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have said prosecutors at his fraud trial are portraying him as a “cartoon of a villain,” but they have so far done little to counter his former colleagues’ unflattering depictions, our colleague Luc Cohen writes.
In cross-examining former members of his inner circle who have pleaded guilty, the defense generally has avoided challenging their accounts of Bankman-Fried angrily snapping at colleagues who questioned key company decisions.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers will have a chance to put forward a competing narrative in a defense case that could begin as soon as Thursday. But the testimony painting a negative picture of the defendant’s character, if it remains unchallenged, could make jurors more willing to convict Bankman-Fried, experts said. He has pleaded not guilty.
“Even though it doesn’t go directly to guilt or innocence, it might create a bad impression,” said Jordan Estes, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who is now a partner at Kramer Levin.
|
|
|
- Maryland Circuit Court Associate Judge Andrew Wilkinson was fatally shot in the driveway of his home last week, spurring a search for a suspect who authorities said was involved in a divorce case that was heard in the judge’s court. Wilkinson, 52, had served on the bench since 2020. (Reuters)
- The conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom said it was qualified to instruct three lawyers at Southwest Airlines on religious liberty, if an appeals court upholds a Texas federal judge’s order mandating the training as a sanction. The group told the 5th Circuit that it had a long history of providing legal training on religious liberty matters to lawyers, lawmakers and members of the public. (Reuters)
- Burger King is seeking sanctions against the plaintiffs’ lawyers behind a lawsuit accusing the fast-food giant of duping customers about the size of its burgers and sandwiches. The company’s lawyers at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath and Venable argued an amended lawsuit makes the “baseless and unprecedented complaint that it is somehow unlawful for a restaurant to display a beautiful photograph of menu items.” (Reuters)
- Former D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown vouched for the character of Donald Trump’s ex-personal lawyer John Eastman during his attorney disciplinary trial in California. Brown, who formerly served on California’s highest state court, described Eastman as “very careful and meticulous,” and willing to engage with opposing views. Eastman is among lawyers in Trump’s orbit indicted in Georgia for trying to reverse Trump’s loss there. He has pleaded not guilty. (Reuters)
|
Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS
|
Reasonable minds can differ about most things but not this: The trial of former president Donald Trump on federal charges of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election results is a matter of intense public interest. The U.S. Justice Department nevertheless signaled this week that the government does not believe Trump’s trial should be televised so viewers can make up their own minds about what’s happening in the case. Alison Frankel looks at two petitions by media organizations advancing First Amendment arguments for airing the Trump trial to the public and predicts what the government will say to counter them.
|
“That is most unfortunate.”
|
—Justice Samuel Alito Jr, in a dissent that laments that a majority of justices had voted to lift an injunction that had restricted the Biden administration’s social media contacts. The Biden administration had been barred from encouraging social media companies to remove content deemed as misinformation, including about elections and COVID-19. The justices agreed to hear arguments to decide the merits of the administration’s appeal of the rulings by the lower courts. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch publicly dissented with Alito.
|
|
|
|
- A Delaware federal court is expected to officially kick off an auction of shares in one of the parent companies of Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum. The process is expected to place the Houston-based company in the hands of rivals or investors. U.S. Judge Leonard Stark accepted a recommendation by a court official in charge of organizing the auction. Stark in July dismissed Venezuela’s attempt to stop the auction. Venezuela had argued that the auction’s conditions would not ensure the best value for the assets, and that the process should be delayed until other pending litigation is resolved. Citgo likely will end up next year in the hands of one or more of the largest refiners operating in the U.S., potentially leaving Venezuela with nothing, our colleagues Marianna Parraga and Gary McWilliams report.
- Lawyers for Donald Trump will try to persuade the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan to overturn two rulings in former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against him. Trump is appealing U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s refusal in June to dismiss Carroll’s case, in addition to Kaplan’s August dismissal of some of the former president’s defenses and his defamation counterclaim. Carroll is seeking $10 million, saying Trump hurt her reputation and career by denying he had raped her in the mid-1990s. Circuit Judges José Cabranes, Denny Chin and Maria Araújo Kahn will hear arguments.
- Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez will be arraigned in Manhattan federal court on new charges that he conspired to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government. Prosecutors have said that Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for using their influence to interfere with law enforcement investigations of three New Jersey businessmen as well as to aid the Egyptian government. The senator has resisted calls for his resignation. He pleaded not guilty to the prior charges against him, as have his co-defendants.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- On Tuesday, a Massachusetts judge will weigh arguments to dismiss indictments against two former leaders of a veterans’ home charged with criminal neglect for their roles in handling a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 84 people. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in April overturned a judge’s initial decision to throw out the charges against former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former medical director David Clinton. The state of Massachusetts last year agreed to pay nearly $58 million to resolve a lawsuit by families of veterans who contracted COVID-19 during the outbreak.
- On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston will moderate an event on the possible legislative path to establishing Supreme Court term limits. The Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences event will also feature speakers including Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth and former U.S. Solicitor General Charles Fried.
- On Thursday, the 6th Circuit will hear arguments from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a case against the SEC over its reversal under Chair Gary Gensler of rules governing shareholder voting advice businesses. The move last year was the latest installment in a long-running battle over how to regulate proxy advisers that guide investors on how to cast their ballot on issues including the election of directors, merger transactions and shareholder proposals.
- On Friday, the plaintiffs who successfully challenged Harvard University’s race-conscious college admissions policies face a deadline to ask U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston to award them legal fees and expenses. Challenges to race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were brought by a group called Students for Fair Admissions, which was founded and headed by conservative activist Edward Blum.
|
- U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan gave final approval to Deutsche Bank’s $75 million settlement with victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the company of facilitating the late financier’s alleged sex trafficking. He granted preliminary approval for the deal in June. (Reuters)
- Four retail pharmacies filed a lawsuit accusing Cigna Group’s pharmacy benefit manager unit Express Scripts of conspiring with another company, Prime Therapeutics, to charge higher fees and reimburse pharmacies at lower rates. The complaint said a three-year collaboration agreement announced in 2019 between the companies was a pretext for fixing reimbursement rates and fees, with no benefit for customers. (Reuters)
- A jury in Austin, Texas, found Zynga’s slot-machine games do not infringe a mobile gaming patent owned by IGT. The jury determined after a five-day trial that Zynga did not violate gambling-technology company IGT’s patent rights in technology that allows mobile games to continue operating through interruptions in communications, and that the patent was invalid. (Reuters)
- A St. Louis jury found Bayer must pay $1.25 million to a man who sued the company alleging he developed cancer from exposure to its Roundup weedkiller. W. Wylie Blair of OnderLaw, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said the verdict broke a winning streak for the company, which had prevailed in the previous nine trials over Roundup. Bayer said that it will appeal. (Reuters)
|
|
|
Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletter or other Reuters news content.
Get Reuters News App
Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re subscribed to, click here.
|
|
|
|
