 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591700&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591701&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591702&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591703&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126591704&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
| //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=874768&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=34880424&stpe=static” border=”0″ style=”max-height:12px;” /> |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
|
A federal judge overseeing the criminal case that accuses Donald Trump of mishandling classified documents has signaled an openness to the former U.S. president’s defense claims, in a sign that prosecutors might face a difficult road ahead, reports Andrew Goudsward.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, has asked Trump and prosecutors to propose jury instructions based on two legal scenarios that favor a claim from Trump that national security lawyers said have little relevance to the charges. Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the case, face a Tuesday deadline to respond to the judge’s order.
At issue in Cannon’s recent order is a claim from Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, that he treated the documents as personal under a 1978 law that allows former presidents to keep records with no connection to their official responsibilities. Prosecutors have said the documents could not be construed as personal because they relate to U.S. intelligence and military matters. The records law could not authorize Trump to keep classified papers, they said.
Experts told Goudsward that if Cannon OKs the jury instructions at issue it would be a win for Trump. Allowing a jury to consider those claims would “give Trump a fighting chance in a jury trial that would never likely exist in another case,” defense attorney Mark Zaid said.
|
|
|
-
Donald Trump asked a Georgia appeals court to disqualify the district attorney prosecuting him for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state because of a romantic relationship the prosecutor had with a former top deputy. The legal filing from the Republican presidential candidate and eight co-defendants asked the appeals court to reverse a judge’s ruling this month that allowed Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, to continue prosecuting the case.
- Elon Musk was questioned for two hours in a defamation lawsuit accusing him of falsely suggesting a California man was involved in a neo-Nazi street brawl. Musk has denied that his social media post on X was defamatory, and he is seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit in Texas state court.
- The Federal Defenders of New York named one of its lawyers, Tamara Giwa, to serve as its next executive director. The group represents indigent defendants facing criminal charges in Manhattan and Brooklyn federal courts.
- Former D.C. waterfront mainstay Captain White Seafood sued Hunton Andrews Kurth, accusing the 900-lawyer law firm of botching its lease agreements and forcing the seafood market to leave its perch in what is now the city’s multibillion-dollar Wharf development. A federal judge in 2021 invalidated what Captain White believed were 30-year leases but instead were month-to-month.
|
That’s how many U.S. Senate Democrats so far who said they planned to vote against Adeel Mangi’s nomination to become the nation’s first Muslim federal appeals court judge. Those chances diminished after Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada became the latest Democrat to publicly announce she would vote against him. Mangi was nominated to serve on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit. Two other Democrats said they would join with Senate Republicans to vote against confirming him. Several law enforcement groups have come out opposed to Mangi.
|
It’s never a happy development for plaintiffs, writes Alison Frankel, when a federal appeals court agrees to review a trial judge’s decision to certify an investor class to pursue securities fraud claims. So the securities bar should be watching what happens next week at the 5th Circuit, where defense lawyers for Anadarko Petroleum will argue that the Supreme Court’s 2021 Goldman ruling requires appeals court to undo the certification of a class of shareholders alleging that the company covered up disappointing drilling results in a much-ballyhooed oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico.
|
“If we don’t have a viable court system that’s able to function efficiently, then we have tyranny.“
|
–Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who spoke in an interview on CNN about threats against the federal judiciary and responded to attacks former President Donald Trump has leveled against the daughter of the judge presiding over his upcoming New York criminal trial. In a rare interview for a sitting federal judge, Walton said he had decided to speak out because it was important for judges to help maintain the rule of law.
|
|
|
|
- Today, a bench trial is beginning in federal court in Florida in a challenge to a state law that imposes restrictions on community voter registration organizations. The challengers, Hispanic Federation, Poder Latinx and four Florida residents, say the state put forward the restrictions in an effort to suppress voters. The challenge claims the law is unconstitutional. The group claimed the law was preempted by federal law, but the judge rejected that argument in February.
- Also today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is slated to consider once again whether 7-Eleven franchise operators could be considered the company’s employees under state law, which would entitle them to minimum wage and other protections. The 1st Circuit in August asked the court to weigh in for a second time on whether 7-Eleven franchises “perform any service” for the company, one of the criteria to be deemed employees. The SJC last year unanimously held in the case that a state law determining when workers are employees or independent contractors can apply to franchise relationships, but the case was later dismissed based on another facet of that law.
- On Tuesday, a federal judge will consider whether to issue a preliminary injunction barring former DraftKings executive Michael Hermalyn from using the company’s trade secrets or soliciting its clients or employees after he joined sports betting rival Fanatics just days before the Super Bowl. DraftKings is also seeking to ban Hermalyn’s employment at Fanatics, something U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston declined at a hearing in February to do in a temporary restraining order but said she would consider as part of an injunction.
- On Thursday, a Tennessee judge will consider whether to issue a temporary injunction blocking the application of the Republican-led state’s abortion ban when women are suffering severe pregnancy complications and in cases of lethal fetal conditions. The lawsuit was brought by lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of several women and is pending in the Tennessee Twelfth Judicial District Court.
- On Friday, Donald Trump faces a deadline to post a $175 million bond in his civil fraud case before the New York attorney general can start seizing the former U.S. president’s assets. On March 25, Trump won a pause in his $454 million civil fraud judgment if he posted a smaller $175 million bond within 10 days.
|
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
|
- A federal judge forced New Jersey to scrap its unique primary ballot design that gives party-backed candidates an advantage, in a decision that could significantly upset the state’s political system. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi in Trenton was a victory for Democratic U.S. Representative Andy Kim, who along with two congressional candidates had sued, arguing the ballot design was unconstitutional.
- U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan dismissed seven lawsuits by investors who accused Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley of misconduct that fueled the rapid March 2021 collapse of Bill Hwang’s $36 billion firm Archegos Capital Management. In a brief order, Rakoff dismissed with prejudice the investors’ market manipulation and insider trading claims against the banks, which had been two of Hwang’s main brokers.
- U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who is in a Texas court that has become a favorite for conservative opposition to Biden administration policies, transferred a lawsuit challenging a CFPB rule curbing credit card late fees to a court in D.C. Pittman said that most of the parties involved in the lawsuit are in the nation’s capital, adding that “venue is not a continental breakfast, you cannot pick and choose on a plaintiffs’ whim where and how a lawsuit is filed.”
- Blackwells Capital is ratcheting up the pressure on Walt Disney in a bruising boardroom battle by suing the entertainment giant in Delaware court for information that may point to possible disclosure violations in dealings with hedge fund ValueAct Capital. The suit is the latest chapter in a fight over who will sit on Disney’s board and help guide the company, with Blackwells and another hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, trying to persuade investors to elect their director candidates while Disney is backing its own directors.
- A federal judge in California appeared poised to reject Tesla’s bid to toss out a U.S. agency’s lawsuit accusing the electric carmaker of tolerating rampant harassment of Black workers at its Fremont, California, assembly plant. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco during a hearing repeatedly disagreed with claims by Tesla’s lawyers that the EEOC failed to include any facts in its lawsuit backing up its claim of pervasive unlawful race bias.
|
|
|
- Saul Ewing added bankruptcy partner Zev Shechtman to its Los Angeles office. Schechtman was previously at Danning Gill Israel & Krasnoff. (Saul Ewing)
- Polsinelli hired healthcare partner Zachary Rothenberg. Based in Los Angeles, Rothenberg was previously at Nelson Hardiman. (Polsinelli)
|
|
|
|
