Tag: lawyer
Meet The Lawyers Of The Anti-Trump Resistance

Meet The Lawyers Of The Anti-Trump Resistance

IMAGE: Immigration lawyers greet passengers arriving on international flights to help them with problems caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. January 30, 2017.   REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Lawyer With Mysterious Background Defends Behavior In Jailhouse Interview

Lawyer With Mysterious Background Defends Behavior In Jailhouse Interview

By Robert Patrick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — It started as a tale of intrigue. Nobody answered the phone at a small law office in St. Peters. Clients arriving for appointments in late October found an eerie scene: door unlocked, nobody there, computers running, case files on the floor.

The question of where Jeffrey M. Witt had gone was not just curiosity. People who hired him were defaulting on cases because he missed their hearings. He even had settled some clients’ cases without their knowledge and took the money.

Nobody seemed to know what had happened to the former Marine and father of five. Looming in the background was that five years before, he helped police catch an ex-client who had planted a bomb that nearly killed a man. And, earlier in 2013, he accused an employee — a disbarred attorney — of impersonating him, triggering criminal charges.

While clients were left reeling, Witt fled across four continents, living on a shoestring budget and an old friend’s largess.

And when he slipped back into the United States to visit his one-time fiancee, it was into the waiting arms of the FBI.

The final pieces are falling into place now. Witt, 39, pleaded guilty last month of bank and mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, relating to missing client money and trickery in borrowing against his mother’s house without her knowledge. Another lawyer has largely finished unraveling the abandoned clients’ cases.

In telephone and jailhouse interviews with the Post-Dispatch, Witt justified his erratic behavior as the product of violence and fear. But some around him describe an emotionally troubled man who just buckled under financial problems and a tumultuous personal life.

Some of Witt’s clients lost their houses, criminal cases, civil suits, and even custody of their children because of his disappearances, in October and earlier, according to lawyers and lawsuits.

Dawn Upton, 40, of Winfield, said she paid Witt to represent her on burglary and assault charges and that he lied in claiming he had arranged a deal with prosecutors. “I paid him $3,000 and it’s just gone,” she said.

Pearl Dotson, of St. Charles, asked Witt to look into a hit-and-run that put her in a hospital. Instead, he forged her signature and cashed a settlement check worth about $2,500, she said.

Dotson said Witt was “messed up and confused” in their last phone call. “When he fled, everybody thought he was dead.”

A close friend from high school said Witt often spoke of someone threatening him and his children. “And so when he was gone, I assumed that they had finally caught up with him.” The friend asked not to be named, fearing a link to Witt could hurt him professionally.

Witt grew up in Creve Coeur in the St. Louis area, attended several colleges, and did a stint in the Marines that was cut short by respiratory problems. “Things started going south” when Witt was 21 and his father died, the friend said.

Witt’s first marriage failed after just weeks. His second, in 2002, lasted about eight years and produced three children. He has two other children with another woman, Tiffany Smith-Miller, and lived with her.

Battling depression, Witt was hospitalized more than once for Xanax overdoses. At the time, he denied suicidal intentions. But in a recent interview, he admitted that in January 2011, “I was done.” He said, “I just took it all … everything that was in the cabinet.”

Smith-Miller said Witt frequently kicked her out of the house, became violent, and blamed her for business failures. She called their life together “the merry-go-round from hell.”

Kenneth Carp, a lawyer who spent 600 hours trying to straighten out the legal mess, said Witt long had a reputation for missing hearings. He would “champion causes” then drop the ball, Carp said. “From day one he would take people’s money and not show up.”

Early in 2011, Witt’s mental health problems forced him to close his practice for weeks.

He also was getting divorced, facing a series of bar complaints, and was under pressure because of his involvement in the bombing investigation, Smith-Miller said.

In 2013 it got even worse.

In June, Smith-Miller left with their children for Colorado.

In September, he arranged for a client to impersonate his mother to obtain a $100,000 line of credit backed by her house, and immediately took $60,000 of it. He confessed to his brother and mother that same day, then doctored documents to falsely claim the loan was canceled.

On Oct. 2, Missouri’s Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel filed a complaint alleging Witt missed deadlines, failed to file documents, and didn’t reveal to clients that one of his employees was an ex-convict and disbarred attorney.

Two weeks later, he was arrested in the St. Louis area for DWI. Witt claimed he had been threatened earlier that day, and impaired by anti-anxiety pills.

That night, his mother went to police about the fraudulent loan.

A week after that, a St. Louis County judge entered a nearly $1 million malpractice judgment against Witt and his office.

By Oct. 24, clients found his office in disarray, and called police. Investigators located him the next day at home near Creve Coeur.

But within five more days, he was gone.

His law license was suspended Dec. 2. Authorities noted that he had 58 open cases in Missouri courts and four in federal courts. Clients had been cast adrift.

In interviews, Witt said his motive to flee was simple: 2 1/2 years of threats and beatings by a man who felt Witt had wronged his mother, a client. The lawyer said he was threatened again on Oct. 28.

“Monday I had a gun to my head,” he explained. “Tuesday, I was out of there.”

The Post-Dispatch could not reach the man Witt named.

Whatever the reason, Witt said he flew to Chicago and then the Philippines, with little more than a pair of shorts, a pair of shoes, a notebook computer, a pen, and less than $4,000.

Unhappy there, Witt soon headed for Australia. He said he obtained credit cards and has no intent to pay the roughly $20,000 he put on them.

Witt said Smith-Miller, his one-time fiancee, was the only person who knew his whereabouts until he asked a lawyer to tell a federal prosecutor he was alive. Witt then told his ex-wife, and the high school friend.

He said he flew to the United Arab Emirates for the prospect of a job but became so worried about how an American ex-Marine would be received that he never left the airport. Then came several weeks in Jordan, followed by a move to Istanbul, via Lebanon, and more job searching. Discouraged, he flew to London, with just $40 left.

In England, Witt said, he lived on proceeds from sale of his laptop computer. His high school friend sent money for several nights at a hostel after Witt said he had spent one night under a highway bridge.

After three or four weeks, he was back in Istanbul about a possible job. People in a mosque took him in; the old friend paid for a hotel.

Witt asked Smith-Miller for money to flee Turkey, which led to a plan to meet in New York for the weekend. Witt said he was unaware he had been indicted. When he arrived March 7, FBI agents were waiting.

Witt was disbarred in June. He pleaded guilty of the federal charges July 25 and faces probably four or five years in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 16.

He insisted in a jailhouse interview days before his plea that he took no clients’ money for himself: it all went to his tormentor until he finally fled.

Witt told Smith-Miller that the loss of professional stature was the primary reason he left, although he also mentioned threats.

Carp said it made no sense for Witt to stick around so long if he and his children really were threatened. “Because if you’re in that much fear, you run,” he said, adding that if the kids are in jeopardy, “take them with you.”

Photo via WikiCommons

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Snowden’s Lawyer Sells Film Rights To Hollywood Director

Snowden’s Lawyer Sells Film Rights To Hollywood Director

Moscow (AFP) – Hollywood director Oliver Stone has acquired movie rights to a political thriller penned by U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s Russian lawyer, the pro-Kremlin attorney said on Wednesday.

“The rights to my book have been handed over to Oliver Stone and producer Moritz Borman,” Anatoly Kucherena told AFP.

“He (Stone) met with me, he did not meet with Snowden. The book will be published later.”

Kucherena is completing a potboiler dubbed the “Time of the Octopus” which tells the story of a U.S. whistle-blower and is loosely based on Snowden’s experiences.

One of Russia’s most high-profile lawyers, Kucherena was among a select group of public figures granted a meeting with the U.S. fugitive during his month-long stay at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport last year.

The lawyer, seen as close to the Kremlin, helped Snowden receive temporary asylum in Russia and has since acted as his spokesman and link to the outside world.

U.S. filmmaker Stone, a trenchant critic of the American political establishment, has also purchased the movie rights to another book about Snowden written by Luke Harding of The Guardian, one of the newspapers that originally published the whistle-blower’s leaks.

The newspaper said in early June that the Oscar-winning director had begun writing the screenplay, and that filming is set to start before the end of the year.

Snowden flew to Russia from Hong Kong last year after leaking a series of U.S. intelligence secrets. His U.S. passport has been revoked.

Many believe he lives in a closely-guarded compound that belongs to Russia’s security service although this has never been officially confirmed.

Washington says Snowden is welcome to return home but only to face trial for releasing top secret information it says has aided U.S. enemies.

Kucherena said earlier this month that Snowden was seeking to extend his refugee status in Russia.

Photo via Flickr

Law Firm’s Interview Notes Shed Light On Christie Staff

Law Firm’s Interview Notes Shed Light On Christie Staff

By Melissa Hayes, John Reitmeyer and Michael Linhorst, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

TRENTON, N.J. — More than 400 pages of documents made public Monday present a detailed picture of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s intertwined government and political operations, a network run by people so close to him that he became physically ill when reading a story in The Record that showed they were involved in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Page after page of interview notes detail how staff in Christie’s administration worked to secure Democratic endorsements on behalf of his re-election campaign. It was an operation that helped Christie win by 22 points, earn a majority of Latino and female voters, garner 32 percent of Democrats and set him up for a potential presidential bid in 2016. Now Christie’s political future is in question after members of his inner circle were tied to the politically vindictive lane closures at the bridge last September.

The documents released Monday — the work of the lawyers Christie hired to review his office’s involvement in the lane closures — also show that members of the administration suggested legal counsel for two key figures embroiled in the controversy: one a top aide, the other the governor’s campaign manager.

Christie’s lawyers, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, have sent the interview materials to Reid Schar, the attorney for the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation, and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both of which are investigating the lane closures.

“We will review them and determine our next step,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who lead the legislative committee, said in a joint statement. “We have made clear that we reserve the right to request additional materials and, as necessary, to issue subpoenas if we believe further information is required.”

Christie’s team of lawyers interviewed 75 individuals — many of them staff members in the State House or on the campaign — and compiled a report that cleared the governor of having any prior knowledge of the lane closures.

Critics called the 344-page report a whitewash.

The interview memos used to prepare that report contained vague summaries and few direct quotes and appear to omit explanatory details. The summaries include nearly 370 instances where those being interviewed were unable to recall details about events they were asked to discuss.

But Monday’s documents also included key pieces of information that were downplayed or left out of the report altogether.

For example, some of the interviews show how a key aide in the governor’s office coordinated with Christie’s campaign to penalize mayors who did not endorse the governor, by instructing State House staff not to return phone calls or schedule meetings. The interviews also detail weekly meetings and conference calls between staff in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs who served as liaisons to local elected officials and the campaign.

After one employee questioned whether it was proper for staff to be working to secure endorsements from the same mayors they worked with in their State House jobs, Christie’s campaign manager got the governor’s deputy chief counsel to sign off on the work so long as it was done after hours. This detail was also left out of the Gibson Dunn report.

Gibson Dunn released only its summaries of interviews Monday, including its meetings with Christie, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, governor’s press secretary Michael Drewniak, chief of staff Kevin O’Dowd and the chief counsel at the time, Charles McKenna. Michael DuHaime, Christie’s campaign strategist, and Reginia Egea, head of the authorities unit, which oversees the Port Authority, also were interviewed.

The notes provide some documentation for details and findings included in the report Gibson Dunn released last month. That report said Bridget Anne Kelly, the governor’s deputy chief of staff at the time, and David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority who had since resigned, carried out the lane closures.

After announcing he had fired Kelly on Jan. 9, Christie said he was also cutting ties with Bill Stepien, his campaign manager, because he didn’t like Stepien’s tone in emails about the Fort Lee mayor, which The Record had also obtained.

Kelly, Wildstein and Stepien did not consent to interviews requested by Gibson Dunn. But the accounts of others who worked in the State House or on the campaign paint a picture of how endorsements were secured and what happened to local officials who didn’t support Christie.

For example, Richard Constable, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, acknowledged in his interview that Kelly, who oversaw the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (referred to as “IGA”) and worked with local officials, wanted him to get her approval before meeting with mayors.

“He recalled being told to clear meetings with elected officials through IGA and was told by Kelly not to meet, for example, with Jersey City Mayor Fulop,” Constable said, according to the notes of his interview.

Mayor Steve Fulop has alleged that Christie’s administration canceled a series of meetings, organized by Stepien, after he decided not to endorse the Republican governor. Fulop’s allegations are not explored in the Gibson Dunn report. Fulop was not interviewed by the team of attorneys, which was led by Randy Mastro, a former federal prosecutor who worked in New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration.

The notes on Constable’s interview reflect on a point the report made clear when it was released last month, specifically that Constable denied Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegation that, during a May 2013 televised town hall event in Monmouth County, Superstorm Sandy aid was linked to a redevelopment project. Constable said Christie never linked aid for Sandy to politics.

The Constable interview also revealed that Port Authority Chairman David Samson checked with him in August 2013 about whether he had plans to continue serving in the administration if Christie won a second term.

The notion that Samson — who led Christie’s transition team in 2009 — played a role in the governor’s administration beyond his position at the Port Authority is also made clear in the summary of an interview with O’Dowd. He said Christie “tasked Samson with talking to various Cabinet members in the administration to determine their second-term plans if the governor was re-elected and that O’Dowd assisted Samson in this process,” according to the interview notes.

Samson has since resigned from his position at the Port Authority and declined the Gibson Dunn team’s request to interview him.

Zimmer has alleged that Christie wanted her to fast-track a development proposed by a company that Samson’s law firm was representing.

Richard Rebisz, an intergovernmental affairs employee assigned to communities hit by Sandy, told interviewers he did not talk to Zimmer about her decision not to endorse Christie, but that Christina Renna, a supervisor in intergovernmental affairs, told him “not to bend over backwards for Mayor Zimmer.”

In her interview with investigators, Renna said she believed Stepien kept track of mayors who were not in favor with intergovernmental affairs.

“IGA staff would receive mandatory directives along the lines of ‘Do not rush to return this mayor’s phone call,’ ” the memorandum on Renna’s interview says. “Sometimes IGA staff received a directive along the lines of ‘no need to call to check in’ with a local elected official, which was enough to send a message to the local elected official.”

While the Gibson Dunn report summarily dismissed Zimmer’s allegations — saying “the subjective perceptions she may have do not match objective reality” — it did not mention that the Hoboken mayor tried to hire Christie’s top campaign strategist for her 2013 re-election bid.

The documents show that Zimmer approached duHaime, a former Hoboken resident who worked on Christie’s 2009 and 2013 campaigns and consults with the Republican Governors Association, in late 2012 or early 2013 about her re-election bid. DuHaime did not end up working for the mayor but did approach her about endorsing Christie. Zimmer’s election was months before she spoke to Lt. Gov. Kim Gaudagno, a meeting in which the mayor alleges the administration tied Sandy aid to her city’s approval of a development.

A spokesman for Zimmer said Monday the mayor was celebrating Passover and could not be reached for comment.

When Christie gathered his top staff, Samson and his campaign chairman, Bill Palatucci, at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton, on Jan. 8, there was a discussion over whether Kelly and Stepien should hire attorneys because of all the media attention the incident was drawing, according to O’Dowd’s interview notes.

Someone — O’Dowd does not recall who — suggested they hire attorneys Walter Timpone and Kevin Marino. Kelly and Stepien went on to retain those attorneys, though Kelly has since replaced Timpone with Michael Critchley, a top criminal defense lawyer in the state.

Christie told his investigators about the Jan. 8 meeting and said he and his staff decided it was best not to talk to Kelly or Stepien, but the notes on his interview make no mention of the discussion about whether they should retain legal counsel.

Gage Skidmore via Flickr