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You are here: Home / Open Threads / In Legal News Today

In Legal News Today

by | 119 Comments

This post is in: , ,

There ought to be something to talk about in here. :-)

Full summary judgment here.

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Two takes on the Trump response to the motion for an order to limit Trump threatening people:

Harry Litman
@harrylitman

Trump’s response to the gag order motion from DOJ is a political screed that says Smith’s motion “is an obvious attempt by the Biden Admin to unlawfully silence its most prominent political opponent.” They continue to provoke, rather than try to persuade, Chutkan.

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Anna Bower
@AnnaBower
¡
New: Fani Willis files brief at the 11th Circuit opposing Mark Meadows’s efforts to move his criminal charges to federal court.

Meadows “can point to no law, no constitutional provision, and no lawful duty which authorized him to take the actions he did,” Willis writes.

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Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheney

NEW: Hunter Biden is suing Rudy Giuliani and his longtime lawyer Robert Costello, claiming they violated federal and state cybersecurity laws in the handling of data culled from his laptop.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  3. 3.

    Misterpuff

    What a time to be a lawyer. Client Fees From Heaven. (Unless TFG is your client: Work for no recompense and high probability of disbarment!)

  4. 4.

    CaseyL

    Everyone – you have got to read the Order itself (Albatrossity linked to it in the earlier thread).  It is a think of beauty.  Using only words, the judge basically skinned, tarred and feathered the Trumps and their attorneys.

  5. 5.

    wjca

    So many, many, many things!  One could even say “An embarrassment of riches” — except that embarrassment is so outdated.

  7. 7.

    DavidFud

    This is an amazing set of legal results, and we aren’t even at mid-week yet! All the little ropes are slowly dragging him down.

  11. 11.

    CaseyL

    @trollhattan: ​

    While I can totally understand the impulse to treat the bear as a welcome, if uninvited, guest at their picnic (I’d be thrilled down to my bones if a bear decided to come say “Hi!” to me) this is really, really BAD. For the BEAR.

    It doesn’t take much for a bear to be declared a “nuisance” and killed. Letting one think all they have to do for a snack is show up at a picnic table is like writing that bear’s death warrant.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Judge Engoron’s partial summary judgment.

    Only thing I might take issue with is signing it with his initials rather than full name. But presumably that’s kosher.

  13. 13.

    LAO

    Between the never ending rain in NYC and a Crohn’s flare-up that has knocked me in my ass, I needed all this. ALL OF THE BAD FOR TRUMP LEGAL NEWS.

  14. 14.

    Gin & Tonic

    Another in a very long string of days on which I have not been arrested, indicted for felonies, nor found to have committed fraud. That’s legal news, no?

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    @CaseyL: ​
    Yep, expression around here is “A fed bear is a dead bear” but they at least try to trap and relocate as long as nobody has been hurt. Even Hank the Tank.

    Turns out relocated bears sometimes travel hundreds of miles back to their original location, so that does not always work.

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    @Jay:

    I did wonder if the bear was an animal they owned, but the reaction of the people filming the picnic seemed to indicate otherwise.  (Though the people filming may not have known them at all, but just happened to be in the same picnic spot.)

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO:  All I’m guilty of is being lazy and copying Albatrossity’s link from the previous thread and removing a couple of extraneous words.  oh, and not looking at the rest of it. :-)

    But really, you should take it up with Albatrossity!

    edit: I did not mean to contribute to your rough day / week.

  28. 28.

    TriassicSands

    At a 2022 rally in North Carolina, Trump claimed he’s the “most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created.”  That fits so nicely with his statement that “I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.”

    Whatta guy!

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO: Uh, oh.  Now I’m gonna be in trouble with Albatrossity.

    I hope this doesn’t turn into The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.  I think that’s the one with the pink ring in the tub (and elswhere that they just can’t get rid of) and every thing they do just makes it worse.

  30. 30.

    CaseyL

    Re the dissolution of all the Trump businesses in New York: I remember there was an order issued preventing the Trumps from transferring their assets to a different entity, but I think that only means they can’t do so in New York.  I don’t know if they can re-incorporate elsewhere.

    Like, say, Florida.

    Or Mississippi.

    Or, um, Russia.

  36. 36.

    Misterpuff

    And all of this due to a slight caused by a comment by a fella at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

     

    Thanks, Obama!

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: I thought they tried to do something like that right away after charges were first brought by Leticia James, maybe in FL?  And it was shot down.  But I may be remembering completely wrong.

  38. 38.

    West of the Rockies

    OT… Brooks Robinson passed today at 86.  Even though I was born in Orange County, CA and was an Angels fan, Brooks was a hero to me, playing before I was even born.

  39. 39.

    Dangerman

    That’s so unfair. Trump crossed his fingers behind his back; everyone knows crossing the fingers behind your back you can be a dishonest piece of shit.

    He almost did the double cross (of fingers!) but he had itchy balls that day. So scratch (from banks) and scratch the nuts (hell, as a Dude, I fully understand) meant no double.

  42. 42.

    Phylllis

    @CaseyL: Based on my extensive study of bear behavior*, once bears get used to people and people food, they usually have to be euthanized. The bear that recently got into Disneyworld was ‘relocated’ & will likely be back.

    *Ok, I read A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling-highly recommend.

  45. 45.

    Albatrossity

    @WaterGirl: If the worst thing that happens to me today is that I get called out for a typo in a blog comment, I’ve had a pretty good day!

     

     

    @LAO: I’m sorry to misspell a legal term in a comment when I was excited about the actual news of the judge’s action. I’ll try to be less excitable about Trump legal losses in the future!

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    @LAO: I hope you feel better soon. If you have the energy and feel like it, I would really like to hear your opinion on the effect of the McDonnell decision on the scope of federal  prosecutions of public corruotion cases.

    This has been a matter of debate here lately. I followed the trial fairly closely but I would much appreciate hearing about the impact of the Supreme Court decision, from someone with a base of knowledge in this area.

  48. 48.

    Redshift

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Another in a very long string of days on which I have not been arrested, indicted for felonies, nor found to have committed fraud. That’s legal news, no?

    Yeah, but if you had committed fraud, this judgment proves that if they can come for him, they can come for you, so the system is totally rigged!

  55. 55.

    Redshift

    @Geminid:

    I hope you feel better soon. If you have the energy and feel like it, I would really like to hear your opinion on the effect of the McDonnell decision on the ability of federal prosecutions of public corruption cases.

    I’d be interested, too. The popular interpretation of that opinion is that it said anything less than direct quid pro quo isn’t bribery, but the fact that it was a unanimous opinion makes me think that must not be the case.

  59. 59.

    LAO

    @Albatrossity: lol. Continue to celebrate Trump’s legal losses with as many misspellings as you want. We are all united in celebration. I seriously hate myself for mentioning the extra e, but I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

  61. 61.

    LAO

    @Geminid: I haven’t read the decision yet, but the movement has been, IMO, towards decriminalizing political corruption. Which I find shocking.

  65. 65.

    JoyceH

    I’ve ordered the pizza, but need some reassurance. How likely is this order to be overturned on appeal?

  66. 66.

    geg6

    @LAO:

    I did not know you had Crohn’s.  It can be a tough slog but there are such good treatments, if no cures, these days.  My sister was first diagnosed in the early 70s, right after she graduated from X-ray school.  Took several years to get the diagnosis and by then, she was on death’s door.  No one in the Pittsburgh area seemed to understand it or diagnose it properly and no idea how to treat it.  My parents had to do their own research and finally got her to the Cleveland Clinic via an ambulance hired from our neighbor who was an assistant coroner and had access to one for hire.  They got her to Cleveland and she got treated by Drs. Turnbull and Fazio (Turnbull’s mentee).  It was cutting edge stuff back in 1972.  She’s a feisty grandma of three now, at age 73.

    https://magazine.clevelandclinic.org/2021-centennial/gut-instinct

  67. 67.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: ​

    Yes, indeedy! And now that an Order has been issued, Trump Org assets are no longer under the family’s control, so it would be difficult-to-impossible to “move” the physical assets to another corporate entity.

  69. 69.

    cain

    We need to really go on a break up spree and breaking up monopolies. Not enough competition – stuff like airlines, groceries stores – we have been too laxed in letting these people consolidate.

  73. 73.

    glc

    @CaseyL: Thanks for the advice, which appears very well founded. Just now I am not going to read those 35 pages, with some lingering regret. Page 4 “pure sophistry” (with footnote), page 5 “rehashed” and page 6  “yet again” catch the eye. Needless to say, the meat lies ahead. That’s as far as I got though, and it was diverting. He doesn’t seem pleased. Now back to my regularly scheduled activities.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    Holy shit!

    ‘Thwarted diabolical plot’:

    Man arrested minutes before mass shooting at Northern Virginia church, police say.

    Investigators said they were able to stop the potential massacre at Park Valley Church in Haymarket thanks to someone who saw troubling posts on Instagram and called police

    By Walter Morris, News4 Reporter •Published September 25, 2023 •Updated 30 mins ago
    https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/man-arrested-minutes-before-mass-shooting-at-northern-virginia-church-authorities/3430595/

  78. 78.

    LAO

    @geg6: I’m glad to hear that your sister got the treatment she needed and is still going strong today. I was diagnosed 35 years ago, and only needed surgery in 2012. It’s been, on occasion, a rough ride but overall I’ve managed.

  80. 80.

    Dan B

    So many legal victories, yay!  The order shutting down prosecution of drag shows seems quite to the point.  You may not like some comedy but you can’t shut it down because the First Amendment was written to prevent exactly this.  What court will be blatant enough to say that this is not a First Amendment case?

  87. 87.

    Mousebumples

    Reminder that we have postcarding (and music) in about an hour! I’ve got a headache coming on, so I’m not sure how long I’ll be around tonight, but hope to see some of you there!

    Probably room for some schadenfreude in the thread too…

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @NotMax:  I think the family name was probably once Trumpf.

    They dropped the F for Fraud.  DJT has returned that letter to their “legacy.”

    (There is a present day candy company named Trumpf.  Makes liqueur-filled chocolates.  Shudder at their name, but am good with the concept.)

  90. 90.

    LAO

    @JoyceH: in NY, the intermediate appellate court is called the Appellate Division (AD, First Department in this case) followed by the Court of Appeals. ITrump will appeal but I don’t like his chances.)

  91. 91.

    Jackie

    Marc Elias celebrating the SCOTUS decision on the Alabama congressional district ruling gives me hope that the end is near 😊

  95. 95.

    Captain C

    @TriassicSands:

    At a 2022 rally in North Carolina, Trump claimed he’s the “most honest human being, perhaps, that God ever created.”

    If there is a god of this universe who would strike one down for such blasphemy, and said god has not yet done so to TFG, we must assume that is because said god has determined that TFG needs to experience an increasing spiral of failures, losses, and public humiliations before he departs this Earth for good, and is nowhere close to done with that process.

  96. 96.

    JaySinWA

    So how long before Trump announces his candidacy for Governors of New York and Georgia to attempt to invoke the fictitious candidate immunity clause?

  97. 97.

    geg6

    @LAO:

    My sister has had over two dozen surgeries and only has about a foot and a half of gut left.  In recent years, she’s battled kidney cancer and then liver cancer, both believed to be possibly related to the massive amounts of meds she’s been on for the last 50 years. She also got COVID twice.  But she’s a fighter.  She may only weigh 90 pounds soaking wet but she is tougher than any tough guy ever.

  98. 98.

    kindness

    Fabulous rulings from all the courts involved.  Makes me kinda wonder though.  You know ruling for the liberal side has to stick in the craws of the Aliotos & Thomases on this court.  I figure they’ll throw a right wing ruling or two out there just to feel better.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Redshift: I would not be so impressed by the McDonnell decision being unanimous except that Justice Sotomayor joined it. Justice Sotomayor has a fair amount of trial experience as a prosecutor in New York City and then as federal District Court Judge. I think she also was in private practice for a while. This is not a typical background for a Supreme Court Justice (although I wish it were), and she knows this area well I think.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    FYI. Another Good Thing.

    The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules meant to guarantee fair access to the internet and its information, five years after they were repealed by then-president Donald Trump in 2018.
    [snip]
    The announcement follows Democrats taking majority control of the FCC on Monday after Anna Gomez was sworn in as a commissioner. The commission had previously been split 2 to 2 on partisan lines since President Joe Biden took office. Biden signed an executive order in July 2021 that contained several provisions relating to net neutrality, encouraging the FCC to reinstate Barack Obama-era rules in those areas. Source

  104. 104.

    LAO

    @geg6: wow, that’s unimaginable to me, I haven’t had the same struggles. I really really admire her for not giving up or giving in. She’s amazing.

    I really benefited from a quick diagnosis before I was symptomatic, when an unrelated blood test showed I was bleeding internally which led doctors at HUP to hunt for the cause. Also, my first gastroenterologist Daniel Present was a protege of Dr, Crohn, himself. I’ve been pretty lucky.

  109. 109.

    geg6

    @LAO:

    In our experience with Crohn’s, it seems that getting the very best medical team is crucial.  You too, I see.  It makes all the difference.

  113. 113.

    karen marie

    @CaseyL:   It’s just jaw-dropping.

    Given DJTJr’s statement that he’s “lost faith in NY laws,” or whatever, he has either paid no attention to the case as it has proceeded, he didn’t read the ruling, or he is counting on his/his father’s moron supporters never reading it themselves.

    It blows my mind that anyone could possibly think that brazening this out is going to work but that’s apparently the tack they’re taking.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    @karen marie:

    It blows my mind that anyone could possibly think that brazening this out is going to work but that’s apparently the tack they’re taking.

    It’s all they’ve got.  Their only play.

  115. 115.

    TriassicSands

    @geg6: It can be a tough slog but there are such good treatments, if no cures, these days.

    I was diagnosed with Crohn’s in 2016. I have been on 7 Crohn’s medications and all have failed, even at 2 and 3 times the normal dose or frequency. I was recently hospitalized with a total bowel obstruction, which resolved to a partial blockage after eight days with an NG tube draining my stomach and eating ice chips and finally a clear liquid diet. My doctor is the head of the Digestive Health Center at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Everyone agrees he should be my doctor.

    I can’t have surgery because the disease has left me so malnourished that the doctors doubt I will be able to recover. I began bleeding in 2011 and have needed frequent blood transfusions, the latest of which was today.

    Many of my doctors have been very good, but the health care system is garbage and has frequently harmed me, rather than helping. I cannot get blood transfusions when I need them, now because of the blood supply shortage caused by the pandemic. However, most hematologists, who handle anemia, adhere to a strict protocol that is based on average patients’ needs. Unfortunately for me, I am not average. That means that I am always weaker, shorter of breath, and more fatigued than is necessary. At the beginning of the pandemic they had a choice. They could maintain me in a constant state of severe debilitation or in a functional, if still very anemic state…for exactly the same amount of transfused blood. They chose debilitation, because “evidence based medicine” tells them that the typical person doesn’t “need” a transfusion until her or his hemoglogin is 7.5. I become severely symptomatic when my hemoglobin drops below 10. At 7.5 I can barely stand up.

    Today, with a hemoglobin of 7.5, I received a two unit PRBC transfusion, which raises me up to a level where I am still severely affected. I can lose that amount of blood in three days to a week, which has happened frequently and happened in both August and September.

    I could go on for pages about how poor my health care has been — denials, unnecessary delays (sometimes for months), incompetence in hospitals, and so on. As a result of the blockage, I was put on a liquid diet, something recommended for only two weeks. I’ve been on it for 2 months. When I asked about TPN (IV nutrition), I was told I wasn’t a candidate. A month later, in severely deteriorating health, my doctor ordered it. My weekly co-pay would be $823.00 A WEEK, something I can’t possibly afford.

    So, yes, there are a lot of new treatments for Crohn’s, but they are all absurdly expensive and come with some potentially very dangerous side effects, including cancer and death. And none of them after many months has helped at all. The last medication that failed, Rinvoq, comes with “black box warnings” that include fatal blood clots, heart attacks, lymphoma, and lung cancer. The warnings are dose dependent and for patients taking 15 mg a day. Crohn’s patients take 45 mg a day.

    My first drug was the least onerous. Pentasa. Then, Humira (finally at 3x the normal dose), Stelara (twice the normal frequency), Entyvio (2x the norm) Cell Cept, then a biosimilar for Remicade, and finally Rinvoq.

    Here are the costs of some of those — Humira ($240,000/yr); Stelara ($22-24,000 per injection, for me $528,000/yr); Entyvio ($240,000/yr); and Rinvoq ($480 per tablet — $175,000/yr).

    And none have helped. I continue to get worse and they have always refused to operate, because my overall health, due to Crohn’s and age.

    The real problem is not the doctors or the pandemic, but the system. For a refractory patient like I am, this has been an unbelievable disaster.

    For patients who are not typical, this health care system is beyond horrible, inflicting endless, needless pain and suffering.

    Doctors have asked me if I am having thoughts of harming myself. “Only when I’m dealing with the health care system.” While it is no one’s fault that the medications don’t work for me, an amazing amount of unnecessary harm has been inflicted on me because of the system’s rules. This comment, as long as it is, is but the tip of my iceberg.

  116. 116.

    catclub

    @LAO: Given all the references in this judgment to other appeals by TRump which did get up a level, and were uniformly batted down.

  118. 118.

    StringOnAStick

    I’m very sorry about your health care problems, no doubt made worse by them trying to fit the round peg of your atypical response in to the square hole of the standard care procedures, no doubt entirely driven by what your insurance will pay for.  The system sucks.

Comments are closed.