Category: Justice

Would Someone Pleas Throw Him In Jail for the Next 8-12 Years

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Let me get this straight. This snake oil salesman gets fired over his financial shenanigans, and Fannie Mae is told NEVER to hire him again, and they are still giving him stock options?

Would someone please throw this corrupt jerk in gaol?

Raines Sues OFHEO Over Stock
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 6, 2007; D01

Former Fannie Mae chairman Franklin D. Raines has mounted a new challenge to the government’s power over the federally chartered mortgage funding company, arguing that regulators have no authority to delay his receipt of a $3.9 million stock award.

Raines sued regulators this week to get the shares released, and yesterday a federal judge scheduled a hearing on the question for July 16.

The fresh challenge comes as legislative efforts to give federal regulators more power over the company have stalled.

Raines is one of many current and former Fannie Mae executives who have been waiting to receive payouts pegged to the company’s performance from 2003 through 2006, including periods when Fannie Mae’s earnings were misstated and, regulators allege, the company was mismanaged.

Raines left the company after the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered it in 2004 to correct years of financial reports that overstated profit by billions of dollars. In reaching a $400 million settlement with regulators last year, Fannie Mae agreed never to employ Raines again.

As the company worked on straightening out its books, it delayed deciding how much stock its executives should receive under certain incentive plans. Last month, Fannie Mae’s board proposed releasing millions of dollars of awards — subject to approval by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

The agency has since sought more information from Fannie Mae about how it arrived at the amount of the awards and told the company to keep the payments on hold until it completes its review.

The agency has warned Fannie Mae that any stock awards it released “could prove irretrievable” and could leave the company liable if later found to be excessive, according to a document filed in court yesterday.

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“DC Madame” Phone Records Available.

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The big lesson, of course, is about how asset forfeiture is used in coercive ways in the United States.

The fact that it is this totalitarian regime is going to reveal all the law and order types who want to be made to dress up in French maid uniforms and be urinated upon, is really just an ironic side effect of this policy.

Judge lifts injunction on ‘DC madam’ phone records

A judge in the US district court in Washington, D.C. has lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the so-called ‘DC madam,’ Deborah Jeane Palfrey, from selling or distributing the list of phone records from her escort business.

“The List in question is the Defendant’s personal property,” wrote judge Gladys Kessler, “and contains only a log of telephone numbers. It was neither seized by the Government when it searched the Defendant’s residence in California, nor listed in the Indictment putting the Defendant on notice as to which items of her property were subject to forfeiture.”

Kessler concluded that the government had not satisfied the requirements of the forfeiture statute that would enable them to make the “extraordinary step of freezing the property of an individual, not yet convicted of any crime, and barring her from giving away that property.”

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SiliconValley.com – Court upholds ruling vs. publisher

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This was actually a VERY important decision. If it had gone the other way, you would have seen much of the internet based credit card activity simply stop.

It’s nice that someone has FINALLY found a limitation to “compensatory infringement.

Court upholds ruling vs. publisher

FIRM SOUGHT TO PUNISH CREDIT CARD ISSUERS OVER PIRACY OF ADULT IMAGES
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
Los Angeles Times
San Jose Mercury News

Credit card companies that process payments for Internet pirates are not liable for copyright infringement, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided that a judge in San Jose was right in dismissing a lawsuit brought by a publisher in Beverly Hills against Visa International, MasterCard and other financial companies.

The 2-1 decision found that Perfect 10, a publisher of adult magazines and Web sites, failed to prove that credit card providers were liable because the financial companies played no role in helping people find or download the infringing images.

The decision dealt a setback to Perfect 10’s efforts to cripple Web sites that sell access to its erotic photographs without permission. The company said it would request a new hearing by a larger panel of appeals court judges.

…

People that I Hate To Agree With

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There are times when I find myself agreeing with people or organizations that I find abhorent.
This is one of those times.
First, Andrew Sullivan, Proud Endorser of the Racist and Sloppy Bell Curve:

The bottom line for Americans is this: George Bush’s friends do not go to jail. Your friends do.

This is a very simple matter. Either Libby is subject to the rule of law or not. Bush’s action is constitutionally solid but morally and politically indefensible – an act of arrogance born of permanent privilege that still, somehow, even after all these years, manages to shock.

And if that didn’t make me feel queasy, there is The Moonie Washington Times, whose sole purpose seems to be giving the New York Sun a run for its money regarding the hackticular nature of it’s news and editorial sections:

But none of this exonerates the commutation. Perjury is a serious crime. This newspaper argued on behalf of its seriousness in the 1990s, during the Clinton perjury controversy, and today is no different. We’d have hoped that more conservatives would agree. The integrity of the judicial process depends on fact-finding and truth-telling. A jury found Libby guilty of not only perjury but also obstruction justice and lying to a grand jury. It handed down a very supportable verdict.

Liberals Don’t Get It, Women are Property

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This is a repulsive thing. It is about the idea that wives are property.

Stealing another’s man’s wife costs $4,802
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — Stealing someone’s heart can cost you: Just ask German Blinov.

A Cook County jury ordered Blinov to shell out $4,802 last week after he was sued by a husband from a Chicago suburb for stealing the affections of the man’s wife.

Arthur Friedman used a little-known state law to mount the legal attack against Blinov. The alienation of affection law, one of eight across the country, lets spouses seek damages for the loss of love.

But Natalie Friedman, the woman at the center of it all, claims her husband asked her to have sex with other men and women — including Blinov — to spice up their relationship.

She supposedly began having feelings for Blinov, prompting her husband to file the lawsuit.

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What Atrios Said

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Here:

Inevitably, the subject of Marc Rich comes up every time presidential pardons come up. Without going into all of the issues, can we just remind the world that… Marc Rich’s lawyer was Scooter Libby.

As I’ve said before, and will say again, this is why Duncan Black is an A-list blogger, and I am a Z-list blogger.

28301-016, Next Round

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Scooter just got turned down by the appeals court. He’s going to have to go to jail.

Libby, Ex-Cheney Aide, Must Go to Jail During Appeal
July 2 (Bloomberg) — Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, must go to prison while appealing his conviction for obstructing a CIA leak probe, a U.S. appeals court said.

Libby may be behind bars within weeks after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today denied his request for release. The decision will increase pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby, 56, as the former White House official’s supporters have urged.

Libby “has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question” under federal law that would merit letting him remain free, the court said.

Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last month following his March 6 conviction of lying to investigators probing the 2003 leak of Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame’s identity. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton refused to let Libby stay out of prison during his appeal — which might take more than a year to resolve — saying that evidence of his guilt was “overwhelming.”

Libby was convicted of obstructing justice, perjury and making false statements. He resigned as Cheney’s top aide upon being indicted in 2005.

….

It was a unanimous decision by the appellate panel, so he’s going to be going to jail. No legal question here.

Of course, the Supreme Court could review this, but I don’t think that even Scalia would be so brazen.

And Another One Bites the Dust

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Yep, another corrupt Justice Department political appointee leaves.

When a Dem gets in, we need to run all the crooks to ground.

In her case, I think that suborning perjury by Supreme Court nominees is one of her crimes. Roberts and Alito were clearly coached to lie.

Seventh official quits Justice Departmen

Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:29PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An assistant attorney general at the Justice Department announced her resignation on Friday, becoming the seventh official to quit the department since the Democratic-led Congress launched an investigation in March into the firing of nine federal prosecutors.

Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general for legal policy, said she would step down on July 9. No reason was given.

Brand was nominated to her position on March 29, 2005, and confirmed by the Senate four months later.

She was responsible for preparing Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito for their confirmation hearings and helped in the reauthorization in 2006 of the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law that Congress approved after the September 11 attacks.

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All-White Jury. Nope, no racism here.

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Bet you haven’t heard about this in the news, but a European paper, the International Herald Tribune, did.
All-white jury likely to hear racial fight case in Louisiana

The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

JENA, Louisiana: An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the “Jena Six” — a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

…

The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges — attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder — were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

….

The racial tension began in late August in Jena — a central Louisiana town of 2,900 with about 350 black residents — after a black student sat under a tree traditionally used as a gathering spot by white students. The next month, three nooses were hanging in the tree when students arrived on campus.

….

The school’s principal recommended the students who hung the nooses be expelled, but they served brief suspensions instead.

On Dec. 4, Justin Barker, who is white, was attacked at school by a small group of black students. He was treated at a hospital.

RIAA Victim Goes RICO On Their Asses.

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Here’s hoping that the RIAA gets really shafted.

RIAA tried to shake down 10-year-old daughter, suit claims
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Published Wednesday 27th June 2007 18:45 GMT

An unemployed single mom with health problems has renewed her legal challenge of the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) with unseemly new details. They include accusations that the cartel’s goons tried to contact the woman’s 10-year-old daughter at school by impersonating the girl’s grandmother on the phone.

RIAA agents pursuing bogus copyright violations also called the apartment of Tanya Andersen looking for her daughter Kylee and demanded they take the girl’s deposition, according to a complaint filed last week in federal court in Portland, Oregon.

Later, during settlement discussions, the RIAA told Andersen she had to abandon all legal rights she may have in a countersuit or the association would once again demand to “interrogate and confront her little girl at the offices of the RIAA lawyers,” according to the suit.

This crosses so many lines, both ethically and legally.

“Defendants’ lawyer threatened persecution of Kylee in an effort to force Ms. Andersen to abandon her counterclaims against the defendant record companies,” Andersen’s complaint claims. “Their demand for face-to-face confrontation with Ms. Andersen’s then 10 year-old child in a deposition at the offices of RIAA lawyers were also intended to coerce and threaten her.”

She going RICO on all this. I hope that some goes Abu Ghraib on these bastards.

Careful readers will remember Andersen, now 44 years old, countersued the RIAA (http://www.theregister.com/2005/10/04/riaa_sued/) in late 2005 after being accused of illegally downloading gangster rap tunes such as “Shake that Ass Bitch,” “Bullet in the Head,” “I Stab People” and several with titles that even we cannot publish.

Her counterclaims equated the RIAA to thugs that knowingly employed illegal investigative methods and pursued factually flawed charges. Suing under state and federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization laws designed to target organized crime rings, Andersen became something of a folk hero for her refusal to submit to the 800-pound gorilla.

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28301-016

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That’s Lewis I. “Scooter” Libby.

Libby, Libby who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you’ll think I’m like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall
Libby I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Libby don’t change your number
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
Libby, Libby you’re the bitch for me
You don’t know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before
But I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination
But I was disturbed
Libby I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Libby don’t change your number
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
I got it (I got it), I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (I got it), I got it
For a good time call
Libby don’t change your number
I need to make you mine
Libby I’ve got your number
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)

Solo

Libby don’t change your number
I need to make you mine
Libby I call your number
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
Next two lines sung over
background refrain of “28301-016”
Libby, Libby who can I turn to
For the price of a dime
I can always turn to you
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6 (2 8 3 0 1-0 1 6)
Fade out repeating “1016”

Surprise, If Nifong Had Done This to Poor Black Men, He’d Still Have His Law License.

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The state bar is broken in the case of prosecutorial misconduct, period, full stop.

What Nifong did was not as bad as mistakenly sending a guy to death row. It wasn’t as bad as mistakenly sending a guy to jail.

This was because the defendants were white and rich.

Prosecutor Becomes Prosecuted
By ADAM LIPTAK

THE misconduct that cost the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case his career certainly seemed to call for a severe penalty: he withheld evidence from the defense, misled the court and inflamed the public.

Yet other prosecutors found by the courts to have done similar things have almost never lost their jobs or their licenses to practice law. Even in the aftermath of prosecutorial wrongdoing that helped put innocent men on death row, discipline has been light or nonexistent.

What makes Michael B. Nifong different?

The answer, it appears, is that he got a taste of something like his own medicine, a trial in the court of public opinion.

“The very same facts that made this case attractive to a prosecutor up for election and a huge publicity magnet — race, sex, class, lacrosse stars, a prominent university — also led to his undoing when the case collapsed and his conduct was scrutinized in and beyond North Carolina,” said Stephen M. Gillers, a law professor at New York University and the author of “Regulation of Lawyers: Problems of Law and Ethics.”

“If the same case had involved three poor men, instead of defendants with private counsel and families that supported them financially and publicly,” Mr. Gillers continued, “we would not likely see a disbarment, in North Carolina or anywhere. I’d be surprised if there were even serious discipline.”

There is widespread agreement that sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct are quite unusual, but heated dispute about why.

Prosecutors say they seldom face discipline because conduct like Mr. Nifong’s in this sexual-assault case is exceptional.

…

The Chicago Tribune, for instance, analyzed 381 murder cases in which the defendant received a new trial because of prosecutorial misconduct. None of the prosecutors were convicted of a crime or disbarred.

…

Indeed, the North Carolina disciplinary commission that disbarred Mr. Nifong faced criticism for its handling of two recent cases involving charges of misconduct in death-penalty cases.

In one, Alan Gell was sentenced to death after prosecutors withheld witness statements from the defense. The witnesses said they had seen the victim alive after Mr. Gell had been jailed on other charges and was physically unable to have committed the murder. Mr. Gell was acquitted at a retrial.

Two prosecutors received a reprimand.

Last year, the commission dismissed charges, largely on statute of limitations grounds, against two prosecutors accused of withholding evidence in the 1996 capital trial of Jonathan Gregory Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman has been granted a retrial.

…

Bush Admin to Create New Gulags

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Replacing one Gulag with a bunch of little ones….Delightful.

Bush Administration Nears Decision To Close Gitmo

AP) WASHINGTON The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush’s national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The advisers will consider a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

…

Lawsuit shows how to sue spammers | CNET News.com

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Short version, he filed in Washington State, won a 31K judgement, and followed up with a suit in Florida to collect, and won there.

Lawsuit shows how to sue spammers

By Declan McCullagh

A recent decision in a lawsuit filed against a Florida credit counseling company offers a promising road map to follow for suing spammers.

After receiving at least nine unsolicited e-mail messages offering credit counseling services, Washington state resident Joseph Hylkema did more than just consign the spam to his junk mail folder: he decided to get even.

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In America, Leaving a Tip is Felony Support of Terrorism

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Someone needs some face time on the nightly news, and this guy is brought up on charges.

I wish I lived in America, but that place seems to be gone now.

Loose mouth and loose change – $5 tip leads to terror finance rap

By George Smith, Dick Destiny
Published Thursday 12th April 2007 13:15 GMT

In the terror case against Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall – sailor on the destroyer Benfold, the US government has another mangy cat in the GWOT.

“Material support of terrorism and disclosing previously classified information” are the beefs in the indictment against Abujihaad, according to a government press release from March. It sounds serious and the newsmedia did its usual listless job in reporting on it.

“Hassan Abujihaad, 31, is accused of supporting terrorism by disclosing secret information about the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them,” wrote Associated Press. “Investigators say he provided those secrets, in classified documents, to a suspected terrorism financier.”

If one looks at the indictment and evidentiary exhibits logged against Abujihaad, it’s thinner cloth.

Abujihaad bought videos from Azzam Publications and Babar Ahmad*, a London computer programmer locked up since 2004 and awaiting extradition for trial to the US, for running a website that promoted Islamic fighters in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan, according to the press.

As for sending classified documents to Ahmad, what Abujihaad did do, and we’ll get to it in detail in a bit, is send rash e-mail, including video orders from the Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer upon which he served.

….

Apparently, no plot. Abujihaad received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 2002 and wound up in Arizona, perhaps an unhappy young man, eventually acutely aware that he might be in trouble for his e-mails to Azzam.

However, when the US government argues that Abujihaad gave material assistance to Ahmad, one expects not to see the equivalent of mail order of three videos reclassified as terrorist activity. Yet this is exactly what is meant.

….

In August, Abujihaad sends Ahmad thirty dollars for another video, Bosnian War.

In this order, he has overspent by five dollars. Ahmad writes “Please tell us what you want done with the remaining $5.”

“Dear Brothers, you guys can keep the remaining $5.00 and [add it] to the funds that you Brothers are spending in the way of Allah and the great Websites .. Azzam Pub.”

Material assistance to terror groups is, you read right, ordering three videos, overpaying slightly and telling the seller to keep the change. “By stating that he watched the video, [Abujihaad] demonstrated that he knew Azzam supported acts of terrorism.” Hmmm, maybe, but logically it seem to indicate many people not normally considered terrorists must now be included in the definition, too.

….

It is a tale, and a bit of a sad one, in which someone which the book against, so far, does not show any serious involvement in terrorism. It is the story of a man who ordered videos and had loose lips when he should have kept his virtual mouth shut, a case of extraordinarily bad timing just prior to 9/11.

But since there is no shortage of experts who can be called upon by the government to insist, true or not, that Azzam Publications was allied with al Qaeda for the courts, Abujihaad’s fate looks grim.

Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation

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I am appalled.

Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation, As Military Searches For Kidnapped Soldier In Iraq, U.S. Threatens To Send Wife Back To Dominican Republic

(CBS/AP) While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Her husband’s request for a green card and legal residence status for his wife alerted authorities to her status, Kolken said.

She now faces deportation, reports CBS station WBZ correspondent Beth Germano, and would be barred from applying for a green card for 10 years.

Her attorney is seeking a hardship waiver, which so far the government won’t grant.

“I can’t imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting [the wife of] someone who is fighting and possibly dying for our country,” Kolken told WBZ.

…

State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering

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Ordinarily, I’m concerned about a misuse of the RICO statutes, but I think that “criminal enterprise” is a good description of insurance companies.

State Farm accused of Katrina racketeering

Federal lawsuit claims insurance company manipulated damage reports
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:39 p.m. ET June 20, 2007

NEW ORLEANS – State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. engaged in a “pattern of racketeering” by manipulating engineering reports on Hurricane Katrina damage so the company could deny policyholder claims, lawyers for a group of Mississippi homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The federal suit against State Farm represents a new legal strategy for attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who has played a prominent role in challenging the insurance industry for its handling of Katrina claims.

Hundreds of homeowners in Mississippi and Louisiana have sued their insurers for denying their claims after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The suits typically accuse insurers of bad faith and breach of contract for refusing to pay for damage from Katrina’s storm surge.

Wednesday’s lawsuit on behalf of Mississippi Gulf Coast homeowners is the first in which Scruggs and his legal team accused an insurer of violating the civil Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, commonly known as RICO.

Scruggs, who helped negotiate a multibillion dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s, said he had filed similar civil RICO suits against tobacco companies. They are tougher cases to build, but can carry stiffer penalties, he added.

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EFF: Breaking News

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This is good news, but I am dubious that the new strip search majority on the Supreme Court will affirm this.

After all, it’s not that tough to get a bloody warrant.

Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches
June 18, 2007

Landmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls

San Francisco – The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls — the first circuit court ever to make that finding.

Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant. But today’s ruling — closely following the reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups — found that the SCA violates the Fourth Amendment.

“Email users expect that their Hotmail and Gmail inboxes are just as private as their postal mail and their telephone calls,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “The government tried to get around this common-sense conclusion, but the Constitution applies online as well as offline, as the court correctly found. That means that the government can’t secretly seize your emails without a warrant.”

Warshak v. United States was brought in the Southern District of Ohio federal court by Steven Warshak to stop the government’s repeated secret searches and seizures of his stored email using the SCA. The district court ruled that the government cannot use the SCA to obtain stored email without a warrant or prior notice to the email account holder, but the government appealed that ruling to the 6th Circuit. EFF served as an amicus in the case, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Law professors Susan Freiwald and Patricia Bellia also submitted an amicus brief, and the case was successfully argued at the 6th Circuit by Warshak’s counsel Martin Weinberg.

For the full ruling in Warshak v. United States:
http://eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa/6th_circuit_decision_upholding_injunction.pdf

For EFF’s resources on the case, including its amicus brief:
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/warshak_v_usa

Contacts:

Kevin Bankston
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston@eff.org