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Good morning. We’ve got details on the lawyers playing key roles in the historic case against former President Donald Trump. Plus, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sues the government over drug pricing, and a 3M subsidiary loses its bid to use a bankruptcy to resolve the largest MDL of all time. It’s a big news week – thanks for being here.
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The key lawyers in the first federal case against a president
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Former President Donald Trump is expected to make an initial appearance in Miami federal court tomorrow as he faces charges over claims he mishandled documents containing some of the country’s most critical secrets.
Here’s some background on several of the lawyers involved in the first criminal case in federal court ever brought against a president.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon: The Florida judge initially assigned to oversee the classified documents case, Cannon made headlines last year when she decided in favor of Trump and barred the FBI from reviewing some documents until they could be reviewed by a special master. That ruling was later reversed on appeal at the 11th Circuit. Trump nominated Cannon, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, to the federal bench in 2020.
Special Counsel Jack Smith: Smith is the prosecutor overseeing the DOJ’s documents investigation and a probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A Harvard Law School grad who is not registered with any political party, Smith was a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office under Robert Morgenthau, who was best known for prosecuting mob bosses. Most recently, Smith handled war crime prosecutions at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “He is fearless,” one former colleague said.
Evan Corcoran: Corcoran represented Trump during the documents investigation, but he could end up a key witness. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that the lawyer listed as “Trump Attorney 1” in the indictment refers to Corcoran, whom prosecutors present as a Trump confidant deceived by the former president. Corcoran was forced to testify and turn over detailed notes to a grand jury after a U.S. judge ruled he could not shield his communications with Trump.
Todd Blanche: Blanche took the helm of Trump’s defense after two of his lawyers, John Rowley and Jim Trusty, quit the case for reasons that were not immediately clear. Blanche, a former Cadwalader partner, is one of Trump’s defense attorneys in the New York indictment. Trump has said another firm will represent him, as well.
Read more Reuters coverage of the historic indictment:
>>> Five takeaways from the Trump indictment over classified documents
>>> Trump faces difficult odds in classified-documents case
>>> Can he still run for president after indictment?
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- Satellite communications company Viasat asked a Texas federal judge to disqualify Western Digital lead attorney and her new law firm in a patent case between the companies, arguing that Gibson Dunn already represents Viasat in related litigation. In a court filing, Viasat said the conflict arose when Western Digital’s lawyer Kieran Kieckhefer left her former law firm Shearman & Sterling to join Gibson Dunn. (Reuters)
- Indicted U.S. Rep. George Santos appealed a ruling requiring the disclosure of the identities of two people who guaranteed his $500,000 bail, saying that releasing their names could threaten their safety. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray said the New York congressman and his staff have been subjected to a “media frenzy and hateful attacks” since news of the indictment became public last month. (Reuters)
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That’s the number of U.S. corporate bankruptcies filed so far this year as of May 30, the highest amount since the 410 bankruptcy filings in the first five months of 2010, according to new data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. U.S. companies are feeling the heat of decades-high interest rates and sticky inflation. In May alone, 54 corporate bankruptcy petitions were filed.
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If you believe the most ardent defenders of newly-indicted former president Donald Trump, there’s a silver bullet hiding in Bill Clinton’s sock drawer. The reference, writes Alison Frankel, stems from a 13-year-old case in which the right-leaning nonprofit Judicial Watch sought access to 79 audio tape recordings of Clinton interviews conducted by the historian Taylor Branch while Clinton was in office. Clinton supposedly stored the tapes in a sock drawer while he was in office, but, for Trump’s purposes, what matters is that he designated them as personal records when he left the presidency — putting them outside of the reach of the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act. A trial judge ruled in 2012 that the archives had no power to second-guess Clinton’s designation. That language has emboldened Trump’s backers, Frankel said.
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“Aearo, simply put, is thriving even while under the ‘overhang’ of the largest MDL in history.”
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REUTERS/Brittany Hosea-Small
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- One of the first climate change trials in U.S. history is set to begin in Helena, Montana, where 16 young people are seeking to hold the state accountable for fossil fuel-friendly policies that they say have exacerbated global warming and dimmed their futures, Clark Mindock reports. Lawyers for the plaintiffs will argue that the state’s support for polluting fuels such as coal and natural gas violates a state constitutional provision that guarantees them a right to a “clean and healthful environment.” They will ask Judge Kathy Seeley, who is presiding over the two-week trial, to issue a declaratory judgment to that effect. The state has called the lawsuit a “meritless” publicity stunt aimed at “shutting down responsible energy development in our state.”
- Attorney John Eastman faces a pretrial hearing before the California bar in an ethics case accusing him of professional misconduct over his involvement in Donald Trump’s failed attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The bar in January alleged that Eastman, a former personal lawyer to Trump, misled courts and made false public statements about voter fraud in the 2020 election. An attorney for Eastman, Randall Miller, has disputed the allegations, saying it was Eastman’s responsibility as a lawyer to provide Trump with a range of legal options to contest the election results.
- Former Beach Boys guitarist David Marks will ask the 9th Circuit to revive his proposed class action that accused Universal Music Group of unlawfully withholding royalties from music streamed abroad. A Los Angeles federal court dismissed his fraud and breach-of-contract allegations, finding that he failed to specifically identify the alleged fraud or broken agreement. Circuit Judges Jay Bybee and Morgan Christen will hear the dispute with Senior U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater in Dallas federal court.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- On Tuesday, the SEC and lawyers for Binance will face off in D.C. federal court over the agency’s bid to freeze assets at the cryptocurrency exchange. The request came a day after U.S. regulators sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao for allegedly operating a “web of deception,” piling further pressure on the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC accused Binance of years of violative conduct, including “disregard” for U.S. laws and “evasion of regulatory oversight.” Binance is represented by Gibson Dunn, and a team from Latham is representing Zhao. Binance said it would “defend our platform vigorously” in response to the SEC’s case, which is pending before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
- On Wednesday, an 8th Circuit panel will take up Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell’s legal claim to block a federal investigation tied to election integrity. Lindell’s attorneys contend the investigation and September 2022 seizure of his cell phone “were made in bad faith to retaliate against Lindell for exercising his First Amendment rights.” The DOJ told the appeals court that enjoining the investigation was “unwarranted” and that the premature return of his phone “is likewise unjustified.”
- Also on Wednesday, Sullivan & Cromwell’s Jeffrey Wall in the 2nd Circuit will defend Major League Baseball’s long-standing exemption from U.S. antitrust liability. A lower court judge threw out a case by several minor league clubs that lost their affiliation with big league teams, including the Houston Astros, after MLB restructured its professional development league. Weil’s Gregory Silbert will argue that MLB violated competition law in its reshuffling. Silbert and other lawyers for the minor league teams have called the MLB exemption a “get-out-of-antitrust-jail-free card.”
- On Thursday, lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried will ask a Manhattan federal judge to throw out criminal charges in an indictment accusing him of stealing from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange. Prosecutors have opposed Bankman-Fried’s bid to dismiss charges. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud, conspiracy, making illegal campaign contributions and foreign bribery. The hearing is before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
- On Friday, Lowenstein Sandler’s crypto practice and Rutgers Law School are hosting an event entitled “Regulating Crypto: Perspectives from Key Stakeholders.” SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal is listed as a keynote speaker, as is Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase. The event comes a little more than a week after the SEC filed a complaint against Coinbase, accusing the crypto platform of making billions of dollars by operating as a middleman on crypto transactions, while evading disclosure requirements meant to protect investors.
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- Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX received court permission to remove customer names from all filings in its bankruptcy case, persuading a U.S. judge that publishing the names would put people at risk of scams and identity theft. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in Wilmington, Delaware, also authorized FTX to remove the names of companies and institutional investors from its customer lists on a temporary basis, saying FTX will have to make a new request in 90 days. (Reuters)
- American Airlines and JetBlue Airways asked U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin to allow them to continue mutual frequent flier recognition and arrangements that allow the airlines to sell seats for the same flights after Sorokin ruled on May 19 that the airlines must end their Northeast Alliance. The airlines argue such agreements are lawful and “ensure that the right airline is paid for the service provided to the consumer.” (Reuters)
- Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein victims who are suing JPMorgan Chase over its ties to the disgraced financier asked a judge to require Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and two other bank officials to sit for new depositions. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, the lawyers said recalling the executives was necessary because JPMorgan has been slow to produce relevant documents. Victims’ lawyers said the bank waited to turn over more than 1,500 documents until after Dimon’s May 26 deposition. (Reuters)
- Federal prosecutors leveled charges of making false statements to financial institutions against a real estate developer who is at the center of allegations that led to the impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. A grand jury indicted Nate Paul, 36, on eight counts of making false statements to lenders based in Texas, New York, Connecticut and Ireland to obtain $172 million in real estate loans in 2017 and 2018. (Reuters)
- Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to pay $500 million to New Mexico to settle claims that its pharmacies helped fuel opioid addiction in the state by failing to stop illegal pill sales, according to an announcement from Baron & Budd, which is representing the state. The deal came after a non-jury trial last year in the state’s lawsuit against the company. The judge overseeing that trial had not yet ruled on the state’s claims. (Reuters)
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