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02/13/2021

Donald Trump’s impeachment trial hurtles towards swift conclusion

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Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial hurtled towards a swift conclusion on Friday, setting the stage for a vote this weekend on whether to convict the former president for inciting an insurrection.

Trump’s lawyers wrapped up their case on Friday after using just a fraction of the 16 hours they were allotted, after which Senators from both parties posed questions to the Democratic impeachment managers and the former president’s legal team.

Trump’s lawyers accused Democrats of a “campaign of retribution” against him and called the article of impeachment an “unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance”.

The former president was impeached last month impeached by the House of Representatives on one charge of inciting an insurrection for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol that left five people dead.

His lawyers anchored their arguments in several montages featuring Democrats, including reels of lawmakers calling for Trump’s impeachment as far back as early 2017, as well as clips of House members and senators urging their supporters to “fight” for what they believe in.

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The legal team sought to equate Democrats’ use of the word “fight” with Trump’s own invocation to crowds of his supporters on the National Mall on January 6. Shortly before the riot, he said: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”

Addressing Democrats in the Senate chamber, trial lawyer David Schoen said, “You didn’t do anything wrong . . . It’s a word people use, but please stop the hypocrisy.”

At one point, Michael van der Veen, one of Trump’s lawyers, claimed “extremists of various different stripes and political persuasions” had participated in the January 6 siege, and repeated the false claim that arrested rioters were members of Antifa, or far-left activists.

Trump’s legal team argued the former president’s speech was protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. His lawyers have also repeatedly argued the Senate does not have jurisdiction to try a former president.

Schoen and Bruce Castor Jr, a former prosecutor from Pennsylvania, were widely criticised earlier this week for their performance in a debate on the constitutionality of the trial. One Republican senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, responded to their arguments by voting with Democrats. “As an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did the good job,” he said.

Cassidy was pictured on Thursday holding a statement suggesting he was preparing to acquit the president, although his staff said that it did not mean he had made a final decision.

Trump’s lawyers met on Thursday with a small group of GOP senators who are among the former president’s most ardent defenders, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas. The move attracted criticism given senators swore an oath to act as impartial jurors in the trial.

Cruz told reporters after the meeting that senators shared their “thoughts” on the team’s legal strategy.

“I think the end result of this impeachment trial is crystal clear to everybody,” he added. “Donald Trump will be acquitted, and every person in the Senate chamber understands there are not the votes to convict him.”

Friday’s presentation came after two days of arguments from House Democrats, who are acting as prosecutors in the case. Led by Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Delaware, their presentation included hundreds of Twitter messages, videos and speeches from the former president, as well as previously unseen security camera footage from inside the Capitol during the riot.

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Several Republican senators praised the Democrats’ presentation. But a critical mass of Republicans is unlikely to vote to convict Trump, or bar him from holding future office, with a majority of them previously voting that the trial is not constitutional.

Under the constitution, two-thirds of the US Senate would need to find Trump guilty in order for him to be convicted — something that would require the support of 17 Republican lawmakers given the upper chamber of Congress is currently split, 50-50, between Republicans and Democrats. Trump could then be banned from holding future office with a simple majority vote.

Joe Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday morning that he was “anxious” to see how Republicans voted in the trial.

“I’m just anxious to see what my Republican friends do, if they stand up,” he said. Biden, who was sworn in as president on January 20, spent several decades in the Senate before serving as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

Last month, more than 150 legal scholars, including the founder of the conservative legal group the Federalist Society and several members, wrote an open letter arguing the constitution allowed for the trials of both current and former public officials.

Trump’s impeachment has exposed long-simmering tensions within the Republican party and underscored the grip the former president retains on the party’s voters and elected lawmakers.

In an interview published on Friday in Politico Magazine, Nikki Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina who is widely seen as a potential candidate for president in 2024, said impeachment proceedings were a “waste of time” but insisted Trump would not be running for office again.

“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” she said in the interview, which was conducted on January 12, one day before Trump was impeached by the House. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”

02/13/2021

It often happens that individuals find themselves in legal trouble often unexpectedly.

02/13/2021

Attorney also claims Democrats manipulated images and videos in their arguments

02/10/2021

Texas lawyer trapped by cat filter on Zoom call, informs judge he is not a cat

A Texas lawyer accidentally left a kitten filter on during a video conference call with a judge and was unable to change it, eventually responding to a judge’s query about why he was being addressed by a digital feline by saying: “I’m here live. I am not a cat.”

US Senate votes Trump impeachment trial is constitutional and will proceed – live
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The coronavirus has prompted many computer mishaps, as many of the world’s workers adapt to working from home in the face of the pandemic. They have ranged from the inadvertently hilarious to the career-ending.

But lawyer Rod Ponton’s accidental morphing into a wide-eyed baby cat appears destined to achieve viral immortality.

Faced with hearing legal debate from the kitten’s cute but worried face, Judge Roy Ferguson of Texas’s 394th judicial district told Ponton: “I believe you have a filter turned on in the video settings. You might want to …”

The Ponton/kitten entity then interrupts Ferguson in a panicked drawl: “Can you hear me, judge?”

Ferguson responds: “I can hear you. I think it’s a filter …”

“It is,” the cat-faced Ponton responds. “And I don’t know how to remove it. I’ve got my assistant here, she’s trying to, but I’m prepared to go forward with it … I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”

Ferguson deadpans: “I can see that.”

In the manner of good judges everywhere, Ferguson sought to use the example of human/feline fallibility as a teachable moment. He tweeted: “If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the ‘Zoom video options’ to be sure filters are off.”

He added: “These fun moments are a byproduct of the legal profession’s dedication to ensuring that the justice system continues to function in these tough times. Everyone involved handled it with dignity, and the filtered lawyer showed incredible grace. True professionalism all around!”

02/09/2021

A face filter integrated with Zoom briefly turns Rod Ponton into a sad kitty during a live court hearing in Texas. Social media is now laughing it up.

02/09/2021

After the hearing, the lawman received praise from the judge for his purr-fect handling of the situation.

02/08/2021

Who Are David Schoen and Bruce Castor, Trump’s Impeachment Trial Lawyers?

WASHINGTON — When former President Donald J. Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial opens this week, two defense lawyers will be thrust into the national spotlight: David I. Schoen, an Alabama-based civil rights and criminal defense lawyer, and Bruce L. Castor Jr., a former district attorney in Montgomery County, Pa., outside Philadelphia.

Neither has worked with the other before, and it remains unclear who has primacy as the lead lawyer on the team. Their uncertain relationship began when Mr. Trump abruptly hired them as his first defense team was falling apart; they now find themselves trying to organize without much idea of what to expect.

“We don’t know what the agenda is,” Mr. Schoen said in an interview late last week, noting that Senate leaders had yet to announce rules for the trial. “We don’t know what the order of things is going to be. We don’t know how much time is going to be afforded.”

Mr. Schoen, 62, graduated from Boston College Law School and has had an eclectic, decades-long legal career.

He has done extensive work on public interest and civil rights cases in the South about matters like police and prison violence and ballot access. Among his many cases, he played a significant role in a class-action lawsuit that challenged Alabama’s foster care system and led to improvements, and he represented the Ku Klux Klan in successfully challenging a law that forbade them from marching while wearing hoods and without paying a fee. The American Bar Association honored Mr. Schoen in 1995 for his volunteer legal efforts.

He has also worked as a criminal defense lawyer, representing an array of sometimes notorious clients, including accused mobsters, rapists and killers. An outspoken supporter of Israel, he has also sued Palestinian terrorists and brought a lawsuit against Simon & Schuster for purported misrepresentations in former President Jimmy Carter’s 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

Richard Cohen, the former president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that while he thought Mr. Trump deserved to be convicted, he considered Mr. Schoen “a good lawyer and a good person” who is attracted to complex and challenging cases and is not afraid to take on sometimes unpopular clients.

An observant Jew, Mr. Schoen requested that Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial be paused if it continues past sundown on Friday, to allow him to observe the Sabbath until it ends on Saturday evening. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said he would “accommodate” the request, which could prolong what both sides had hoped would be a quick proceeding.

Mr. Castor, 59, who did not respond to a request for an interview, brings a different set of experiences. After earning his law degree from Washington and Lee University, he served two terms as the elected district attorney in Montgomery County and a later stint as the Pennsylvania solicitor general. He has since worked as a criminal defense lawyer.

He is most famous for his unapologetic defense of his decision in 2005 not to prosecute Bill Cosby after a Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, accused him of drugging and s*xually assaulting her.

Mr. Castor lost re-election to an opponent who had criticized his handling of the case and went on to charge Mr. Cosby with aggravated indecent assault. Trying to get that charge thrown out, Mr. Cosby’s defense team called Mr. Castor as a witness at a hearing in 2016. He argued that his decision not to prosecute had been appropriate.

“I came to the conclusion that there was no way that the case could ever improve and get better with time absent Mr. Cosby’s confession,” Mr. Castor said on the stand. “Andrea Constand’s own actions during that year ruined her credibility as a viable witness.”

But the judge allowed the case to go forward, and Mr. Cosby was convicted in 2018. Ms. Constand later sued Mr. Castor for defamation, and the two settled outside of court in 2019. Separately, Mr. Castor sued Ms. Constand, arguing that she had filed the defamation case to influence an election in which he failed to regain his district attorney position; a judge dismissed that case.

Mr. Castor was recommended to Mr. Trump and his advisers by his cousin, Stephen R. Castor, a House Republican staff lawyer who helped lead the president’s early defense against his first impeachment in 2019. Stephen Castor clashed with Democrats over Mr. Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine into announcing a corruption investigation into Joseph R. Biden Jr., his political rival.

The forces that drew Mr. Schoen to the world of Mr. Trump trace to the 1990s, when he represented two organized-crime convicts. Arguing that prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence that would have helped the defense, Mr. Schoen tried to overturn their convictions but failed.

Andrew Weissmann was one of those prosecutors. When the special counsel leading the Russia investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, hired Mr. Weissmann as a deputy, he became a favorite target of Trump allies seeking to discredit the broader inquiry. Mr. Schoen criticized Mr. Weissmann on Fox News and other conservative news outlets.

The relationship drew closer after Mr. Mueller’s office won convictions of Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s longtime friend and adviser, for crimes like lying to Congress and witness tampering. Mr. Schoen was handling Mr. Stone’s appeal before Mr. Trump granted him clemency. Mr. Schoen said he believed he had been recommended to the president for the impeachment trial as a result of that connection.

Mr. Castor and Mr. Schoen must now defend the former president against a charge of “incitement of insurrection” related to the riot at the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6. The case focuses on Mr. Trump’s monthslong campaign to make his followers believe the falsehood that he had won re-election but was denied victory because of fraud, and his exhortations to his supporters at a rally in Washington shortly before the riot to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” as Congress was trying to formally certify Mr. Biden’s win.

Both Mr. Castor and Mr. Schoen have previously made headlines for other cases in which they pitted expressions of belief not necessarily supported by facts.

In 2002, when Mr. Castor was a district attorney, he fought the release from prison of a man who was exonerated of a r**e conviction by a DNA test. The prisoner, Bruce Godschalk, had confessed to detectives but recanted long before his trial, but Mr. Castor had opposed allowing his DNA to be tested.

When scientific evidence refuted the prosecutors’ case against Mr. Godschalk, Mr. Castor questioned the validity of the test results while conceding that he had “no scientific basis” for doing so. Even after further testing confirmed the findings and he was forced to let Mr. Godschalk go, Mr. Castor continued to express doubts about the man’s innocence.

Mr. Schoen has made headlines more recently for expressing a belief that clashes with an official fact-finding conclusion: a medical examiner’s determination that Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused s*x criminal, died by su***de in prison in 2019.

Nine days before Mr. Epstein’s death, Mr. Schoen had met with him for hours to discuss taking over his case. Based on Mr. Epstein’s demeanor and excitement about new legal strategies, and citing the nature of his injuries, Mr. Schoen said he did not think he had killed himself.

“I don’t think it was a su***de,” Mr. Schoen reiterated in the interview, adding: “I don’t know what happened. I don’t have a conspiracy theory.”

It has been reported that Mr. Trump and his original legal team, led by Butch Bowers, parted ways because of a clash over whether his defense should focus on his false claim that the election was stolen.

But Mr. Schoen said he had begun working with Mr. Bowers several days before most of the team departed, and that explanation for what happened was not accurate. He said there had been a miscommunication, but he declined to offer further detail other than to insist that “the president hasn’t pushed any agenda on this thing.”

Mr. Castor has also denied that Mr. Trump pushed them to focus on the legitimacy of the election results, telling a Philadelphia radio station that they would instead focus on “technical” legal arguments.

Together, Mr. Castor and Mr. Schoen are expected to argue that the Senate lacks constitutional jurisdiction to try former officials (even though it has done so before), and that Mr. Trump’s incendiary language before the riot fell short of what could yield an incitement conviction in a criminal court because of the First Amendment.

“This is a terrible chill on passionate political speech, even bringing this action,” Mr. Schoen said.

02/08/2021

David Schoen, an Orthodox attorney leading the ex-President's defence, asked for the hearing to be delayed while he observes Shabbat

02/08/2021

BLM has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize

02/05/2021

Aung San Suu Kyi lawyer says unable to meet her, seeks unconditional release

(Reuters) - The lawyer for Myanmar’s detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint said the two politicians were being kept at their homes but he was unable to meet them because they are still under investigation after a coup this week.

They were detained on Monday when the army seized power. Police have filed charges against Suu Kyi of importing six walkie-talkie radios illegally while Win Myint is accused of breaking coronavirus restrictions.

“We expect justice from the judge, but it is not certain. We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Of course, we want unconditional release as they have not broken the law,” veteran lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters in the capital, Naypyidaw.

Khin Maung Zaw said he had been appointed by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide in a Nov. 8 election in which the army alleged fraud - an accusation dismissed by the election commission.

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He said that he had tried to meet Suu Kyi and Win Myint.

“They are grounded in their homes,” he said.

“I can’t meet them because I was told that they are still being investigated,” he said, adding that he would have the right to meet them when they appear at court or are sent to a prison.

Police have requested that both be detained for questioning until Feb. 15.

Khin Maung Zaw was himself a political prisoner during a previous period of junta rule.

He was on the legal team of two Reuters reporters who were released in May 2019 after spending more than 500 days behind bars, accused of breaking the official secrets act. Before their arrest, they had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in Rakhine state.

02/05/2021

Prominent human rights lawyer Debora Kayembe has been named on Friday as Rector of the University of Edinburgh. Ms Kayembe who came to the UK as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,…

02/05/2021

The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently published Formal Opinion 494 (“Opinion 494”), which examines a hitherto…

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