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Tag: sdny prosecutors
Latest Trump Lawyer Turns New York Hearing Into Political Circus

Latest Trump Lawyer Turns New York Hearing Into Political Circus

An attorney for Donald Trump turned a (virtual) New York courtroom into a Fox News-style proceeding Thursday.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is attempting to force Donald Trump, the former president, along with his adult children to sit for depositions related to her investigation into possible fraud at the Trump Organization. Thursday’s hearing was called so New York Supreme Court District Judge Arthur Engoron could hear arguments on the issue.

But Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, had other ideas in mind, as Business Insider reports.

“I want to know,” Habba, in court, asked the NY Attorney General, “are you gonna go after Hillary Clinton for what she’s doing to my client?”

Hillary Clinton is doing nothing to her client, except perhaps making him and the right-wing media silo look bad.

“That she spied at Trump Tower in your state?” Habba continued, which is false. “Are you gonna look into her business dealings?”

Judge Engoron was not impressed.

“The Clintons are not before me,” the judge replied.

NPR host Peter Sagal weighed in, saying: “I’m not a lawyer, but based on her rant in a virtual courtroom just now, I’m not sure Donald Trump’s attorney Alina [Habba] is either.”

“Among other things,” Sagal adds, “she’s speaking to the Judge as if he’s an opponent on a cable news panel, which strikes me as not wise? Also, the [clerk] keeps having to tell her to stop talking over the judge.”

Habba also told the judge AG James is engaged in “selective prosecution,” as Law & Crime News managing editor Adam Klasfeld reports.

“It’s unconstitutional,” she claimed.

“The only reason that she is doing this because he was a former president, and because he sits on the other side of the fence,” she added.

Klasfeld adds that Habba called “for an evidentiary hearing to probe whether this is premised on a ‘political agenda.'”

It appears Habba was putting on a show:

Habba also told the judge that Donald Trump is a “protected class.” When asked to explain, she reportedly referenced his “political speech,” which is not what “protected class” means.

It did not get better for Habba.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet




Epstein Suicide Astonishes Former SDNY Prosecutors

Epstein Suicide Astonishes Former SDNY Prosecutors

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

News of Jeffrey Epstein’s death by apparent suicide on Saturday sparked a wave of conspiracy theories — including one amplified by President Donald Trump that attempted to link Epstein’s death to former President Bill Clinton (without evidence, of course).

But while the conspiracy theories are just those, legal experts — from former federal prosecutors to law scholars — are likewise “dumbfounded” by Epstein’s death, particularly after it was revealed Epstein was not on suicide watch during his apparent suicide.

Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst who served as the assistant attorney general for the South District of New York, said he “can’t recall any suicides” at the [Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York]” during his time as a prosecutor.

Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor for the SDNY, couldn’t “recall one either.”

Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe said it’s “inexcusable that [Epstein] was taken off suicide watch.” He also demanded Attorney General Bill Barr recuse himself from the investigation into why Epstein was removed from suicide watch.

“We have to ask who stood to gain from his permanent silence?” Tribe added. “Whom could he have incriminated in an effort to win favorable treatment from the Trump Justice Department?”

Lawyer Harry Litman, in an article for the Washington Post, called Epstein’s suicide “unfathomable.”