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Good morning. Racketeering laws like the one in Georgia’s case against Donald Trump are powerful tools for prosecutors, legal experts told reporter Jack Queen. But they also can pose legal and logistical complications. Plus, the Texas federal judge who ordered three Southwest Airlines attorneys to undergo religious rights training faces a discipline complaint; a former WSJ reporter just dropped his Indian hacker lawsuit against Dechert; and a prominent federal appeals court judge questions the handling of misconduct claims against Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman.
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A Georgia state law against racketeering could be a powerful tool in prosecuting Donald Trump, but applying charges traditionally used to take down organized crime risks miring the case in legal and logistical complications, experts told Jack Queen.
Trump and 18 of his associates are accused of running afoul of the state’s RICO law. Traditionally designed to take down mafia bosses, RICO charges are now broadly used to go after groups of loosely associated people bound only by their common participation in a criminal enterprise. Georgia’s RICO statute is more expansive than a federal law on which it is modeled and does not require criminal enterprises to be long-running.
“The problem with RICO is that it takes a lot longer because there are so many more elements to it,” said Jerry Froelich, a Georgia criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. “I don’t know if you could even find a courtroom big enough for 19 defendants.”
The case has been assigned to a former prosecutor, who is also the newest judge on the court. While Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has said she is aiming for a trial in the next six months, legal experts said the case will almost certainly be delayed due to the sheer number of defendants, each of whom is likely to raise a unique set of pre-trial issues.
Read more about the benefits – and challenges – of using RICO in Trump’s case.
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- Judicial reform advocacy group Fix the Court filed a complaint accusing U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of misconduct by taking the “strange” step of requiring three Southwest Airlines lawyers to attend “religious liberty training” by conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. The complaint said Starr violated the judicial conduct code by assigning a sectarian organization to carry out the attorney sanctions he ordered. (Reuters)
- The former chief financial officer of Anderson Kill said in a lawsuit that the U.S. law firm forced him out after he fell and suffered a concussion last year. Paul Schwartz’s complaint in Manhattan federal court alleged Anderson Kill harassed him into coming back to work before he was ready. (Reuters)
- Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon ended his lawsuit against Dechert and two of its ex-partners, saying in a filing he was voluntarily dismissing his claims against the law firm. Solomon sued Dechert and several others last year, alleging that the Philadelphia-based firm worked with hackers from India to steal emails between him and one of his key sources. Solomon alleged the messages were later circulated in a successful effort to get him fired from the Journal. Dechert has disputed the claims. (Reuters)
- Christopher Clark, the senior lawyer representing Hunter Biden, is seeking to withdraw from the case involving the U.S. president’s son on the grounds that he might be called to testify. Biden, facing tax and gun charges, may be headed for a criminal trial, U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss said after being appointed to the post. (Reuters)
- Attorney regulators in Michigan dropped disciplinary charges against two of the lawyers who were accused of trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory during the 2020 presidential election there. The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission dismissed its cases against Emily Newman and Stefanie Lambert Junttila, both of whom were a part of conservative lawyer Sidney Powell’s effort in court to challenge the election. The commission’s case against Powell is pending. (Reuters)
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That’s how much in seized funds SVB Financial, the bankrupt former parent of Silicon Valley Bank, argued that the U.S. government should place into an escrow account to prevent millions of dollars in lost interest revenue. SVB Financial has been tangled up with the FDIC ever since the regulator stepped in to rescue its Silicon Valley Bank unit from collapse in March. The FDIC guaranteed all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank except for those of the bank’s parent, which it seized to recoup the costs of the rescue effort. SVB Financial said it has already lost out on $42 million in interest that its deposits would have generated.
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The crypto industry appears to be undeterred by a ruling last month that casts doubt on a sweeping theory that could squelch efforts by the SEC to police crypto issuers and exchanges. Alison Frankel looks at a spate of recent briefs in the SEC’s case against crypto exchange Coinbase that contend the SEC’s crypto enforcement campaign runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine – even though a Manhattan federal judge ruled otherwise last month.
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“The District may act to prevent the defacement of public property, but it cannot open up its streets and sidewalks to some viewpoints and not others.”
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—The D.C. Circuit, which in a 3-0 decision revived part of a lawsuit claiming that the District of Columbia in 2020 enforced an anti-graffiti law against anti-abortion protesters in Washington, but not against racial justice demonstrators that same summer. In their lawsuit, the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America said local police arrested protesters who wrote “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on a public sidewalk during an August 2020 demonstration, but essentially abandoned enforcement of the anti-graffiti law during Black Lives Matter protests. The court found that the groups had plausibly alleged that the D.C. government “discriminated on the basis of viewpoint in the selective enforcement of its defacement ordinance.”
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- 3M and a group of plaintiffs lawyers face a federal court deadline in South Carolina to respond to 22 states and U.S. territories that moved to block a proposed $10.3 billion settlement. The deal would resolve claims against the company over water pollution tied to “forever chemicals.” The states asserted that the deal, pending before U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston, fails to adequately hold the company accountable. 3M, which is facing thousands of lawsuits over PFAS contamination, did not admit liability in the proposed settlement. Mayer Brown’s Daniel Ring is defending 3M, and the class is represented by plaintiffs’ firms Douglas and London, Napoli Shkolnik, Baron & Budd and Fegan Scott.
- Choreographer Kyle Hanagami will ask the 9th Circuit to revive his copyright lawsuit against Epic Games, the maker of the hit battle-royale game “Fortnite,” over his allegations that it copied choreography he created for a music video by musician Charlie Puth and sold it to players for use in the game. The case is one of several lawsuits brought by creators of viral dances — including “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actor Alfonso Ribeiro and “Backpack Kid” Russell Horning — against the company for allegedly using their moves in “Fortnite” without paying. The lawsuits have all been unsuccessful so far.
- Google’s lawyers at Munger Tolles are due to respond to legal claims in California federal court filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who alleges the company’s YouTube platform is unlawfully removing his speeches. Kennedy, a lawyer and vaccine skeptic, is making a bid for the White House in 2024 as a long-shot Democratic candidate to challenge President Joe Biden in his run for re-election. YouTube has taken steps to block anti-vaccine content that contains false information about COVID vaccines and misinformation. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson will hold a hearing on Monday.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- AMC Entertainment was hit with a class-action lawsuit on behalf of preferred shareholders challenging its stock conversion plan. The suit comes just days after the cinema operator settled a class action brought by holders of the company’s common stock. Now, AMC investors with preferred stock claim they are being shortchanged in the deal. (Reuters)
- The 4th Circuit revived a lawsuit in which the United States and Virginia accused Walgreens of defrauding Virginia’s Medicaid program by falsely representing that some patients were eligible for expensive hepatitis C drugs. The 3-0 panel ruling cleared the way for the nation’s largest pharmacy chain to face claims it violated the federal False Claims Act and Virginia state law. (Reuters)
- The 2nd Circuit rejected longtime umpire Angel Hernandez’s lawsuit accusing Major League Baseball of racial discrimination in its promotion practices. The appeals court said that despite a “bottom-line imbalance” between white and minority crew chiefs, Hernandez failed to show a statistically significant disparity in promotion rates. (Reuters)
- A September trial in Boston federal court over the U.S. government’s claims that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries used illegal kickbacks to boost sales of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone has been put on hold while the company appeals a July order that allowed the case to move forward. U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton said that the unusual pre-trial appeal was warranted because there was “substantial ground for difference of opinion” about what the government must prove regarding Medicare payments. (Reuters)
- Mallinckrodt said it was preparing to seek bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years after struggling to make a required $200 million settlement payment to opioid victims. One of the largest makers of opioids, Mallinckrodt emerged from bankruptcy last year after winning court approval for a reorganization plan that included a $1.7 billion settlement, but has since had to delay payments to the opioid trust. (Reuters)
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- Robert Brown joined Sheppard Mullin in New York as chief operating officer from Shearman & Sterling, where he had served as co-executive director of the firm. (Reuters)
- Vinson & Elkins added Monique Watson as a D.C.-based energy regulatory partner. Watson was previously at Steptoe & Johnson. (Vinson & Elkins)
- Weil brought on Houston-based private equity partner Cody Carper from Skadden. He focuses on energy industry deals. (Weil)
- Laurian Cristea joined Barnes & Thornburg as a partner in the firm’s corporate department. Cristea, who will work out of the New York and Raleigh offices, was previously chief legal officer at Cboe Digital. (Barnes & Thornburg)
- Wilson Elser expanded to Indianapolis with the hiring of partner Joseph Macha. He joins the firm from Foley Mansfield, as does associate Thomas Flynn. (Wilson Elser)
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