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Category: Law
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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling defends against another lawsuit
The estate of a dead writer who created a fictional wizard named Willy wants $50 million from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, claiming she stole passages from their man’s book and infringed on his – and now the estate’s – copyright.
The estate also says it intends to sue Rowling individually.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The showdown – Rowling’s second plagiarism lawsuit – will take place in London and invoke the ghost of Adrian Jacobs, author of The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, published in 1987. The book was first rejected by Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, more than a decade before it gave Rowling’s her start.
Jacobs died about the time the first book in Rowling’s hugely lucrative series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, hit the market.
Tuesday, Bloomsbury responded to the plagiarism accusation in the London Daily Mail, calling it “unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue,” dismissed Jacobs’ book as “a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution,” and said the claim was first made in 2004 – years after the first several Potter books were published – and the publisher was “unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard.”
Rowling, who prevailed in an unrelated 2002 plagiarism suit after that writer was found to have changed evidence to bolster her own claim, had no comment about the latest clash of wizards.
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Mark Walsh gets another crack at Lehman fundsJune 21, 2009 at 10:10am
The man some blame for the investments that brought Lehman Brothers Holdings down is getting a second chance to profit from those investments.
Lawyer Marc S. Dreier awaits sentencing after plea
But for Bernard L. Madoff, Marc S. Dreier might be a household name.
Accused of money laundering, wire fraud, securities fraud and other charges, Dreier pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Manhattan. He had been charged with selling nearly $700 million in fake promissory notes. Investors may have lost as much as $400 million.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)He faces a sentence of 20 years to life on each of the most serious charges against him.
“I understand that everything I was doing was illegal,” Dreier told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on the day before his 59th birthday, Bloomberg news reported.
Rakoff allowed Dreier to remain under house arrest until his July 13 sentencing.
By a purely monetary standard, Dreier’s offenses did not match those of Madoff, who took investors for as much as $68 billion.
However, Dreier beats Madoff on style points, according to Robert Kolker of New York Magazine.
“Dreier took a starring role in his own financial drama,” Kolker wrote. “Where Madoff was outwardly quiet and self-effacing, Dreier was openly egotistical, even smug. He seemed to think he could lie to his victims’ faces and get away with it, to thrill, even, in the art of deceiving people.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Dreier was the founder of Dreier LLP, a 250-member firm that had offices in New York City and Los Angeles before it fell apart after Dreier’s arrest.
Seemingly successful, Dreier lived the high life before his troubles became public. He collected cars, art, celebrity friends. He gave to charities; dated beautiful women.
He also created a financial house of cards that began to tumble last year as some investors asked for their money back.
Scrambling for funds, Dreier flew to Toronto in December. While there, he represented himself to a hedge fund executive as an official with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Something seemed wrong to the hedge fund guy; the police were tipped off. Dreier was arrested for impersonation. He spent a few days in jail and then was released on $100,000 bail.
Unshaven, looking like someone coming up for air after a binge, Dreier headed back to the U.S. Authorities welcomed him a LaGuardia Airport with an arrest warrant.
He stayed in jail until February when he was released on a $10 million bond.
Under the terms of his bail, Dreier, who is represented by defense attorney Gerald L. Shargel, can’t leave his Upper East Side apartment without court permission.
He has to pay for security guards and can’t have a cell phone. (The apartment is now for sale for $10 million.)
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GM considers move from Detroit’s Renaissance CenterMay 14, 2009 at 8:08am
When GM CEO Fritz Henderson raised the possibility that the automaker could vacate the Renaissance Center, it raised the threat of both real and symbolic devastation for Detroit.
Henry Schuelke brings history of probes to Stevens case
Henry F. Schuelke III, a lawyer with links to a wide variety of high-profile cases, has taken on the task of investigating the bungled prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave the job to Schuelke, whose resume includes an in-house investigation of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)Schuelke will try to determine if six government attorneys committed possible crimes in their handling of the corruption trial that led to Stevens’ conviction last year a few days before Election Day.
Stevens, 84, a Republican who had served in the Senate for 40 years, lost by fewer than 4,000 votes, his defeat at the polls attributed by many to his loss at trial.
The Justice Department withdrew the indictment against Stevens last week. Sullivan threw out the conviction on Tuesday, citing prosecution misconduct that included the failure to turn over to the defense evidence favorable to Stevens.
The Justice Department is investigating the prosecution, as well. However, Sullivan said an outside investigator was needed.
“The events of this case are too numerous and serious to leave to an internal inquiry by the Justice Department,” Sullivan said.
Schuelke, 66, a partner in the Washington firm of Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler and a former assistant U.S. attorney, has taken on the investigation of government officials before.
In 1981, He served as special Democratic counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when it was considering the nomination of Alexander Haig to be secretary of state in the Reagan administration.
In 1989, he acted as special counsel to the U.S. Senate committee looking into allegations against then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York. After a long process, the committee chose not to censure D’Amato.
In 1996, During the Clinton administration, Schuelke represented Carolyn Huber, the special assistant to the president who found some missing papers related to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s work while at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas.
Later Schuelke represented Betty Currie, President Clinton’s personal secretary, during the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Away from government, Schuelke has represented Ben F. Glisan Jr., the former treasurer of the Enron Corporation, and Jack L. Williams, a former lobbyist for Tyson Foods.
In 2004, Greenberg Traurig LLP hired Schuelke to conduct an internal investigation into the conduct of Abramoff, a lobbyist with the firm who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion.
Fellow attorneys said this week that Schuelke brings the right blend of experience and temperament to the task of looking into the handling of the Stevens prosecution.
“He’s somebody who is scrupulously balanced, which I think is what you are looking for,” W. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a litigator with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, told the Associated Press.
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Commerce Secy Gary Locke is longtime advocate of Boeing, MicrosoftApril 10, 2009 at 8:49am
From the outset of his political career, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was bullish about business.
2008 bust is boom for H. Rodgin Cohen
As the financial crisis spread wider and wider in 2008, H. Rodgin Cohen got more and more work.
For all of this, The American Lawyer magazine has named Cohen, the chairman of the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, the No. 1 dealmaker of 2008.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)By the magazine’s count, Cohen took part in at least 17 “global credit crisis-related mergers, bailouts and cash infusions” during the year.
Cohen was a key player in the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase, and he represented Fannie Mae in its takeover talks with the U.S. government.
He advised Lehman Brothers Holdings during its bankruptcy, just as he counseled Barclays Bank when it acquired some of Lehman Brothers.
Cohen was there for Wachovia Corporation when it was sold to Wells Fargo, and he helped Goldman Sachs become a bank holding company.
Why did Cohen get all this work?
“He probably has the most impressive reputation in terms of banking and work with Treasury and the Fed of any lawyer out there,” Stephen Ashley, former chairman of the Fannie Mae board of directors, told The American Lawyer.
“It’s like going to see a surgeon,” said Robert Steel, the former chief executive of Wachovia. “You want a surgeon who has seen a lot of these operations.”
Cohen suggested to the magazine that he’ll have plenty of work as 2009 goes on, as well.
He didn’t think the Troubled Asset Relief Program was well packaged, though he did express faith in President Obama and Timothy Geithner, the treasury secretary.
A native of West Virginia and a graduate of Harvard Law School, Cohen, 64, has worked with troubled banks for more than 30 years. In 1980, he was also involved in the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis.
In March, Cohen reportedly withdrew his name from consideration to be deputy treasury secretary.
The American Lawyer’s No. 2 dealmaker for 2008 was Edward Herlihy, a lawyer with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, outside counsel for Bank of America. Herlihy advised the bank in its merger with Merrill Lynch & Co.
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Commerce Secy Gary Locke is longtime advocate of Boeing, MicrosoftApril 10, 2009 at 8:49am
From the outset of his political career, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was bullish about business.
Harvard Law ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
To save on travel expenses, the Harvard Law School Class of 1991 might as well have its reunion this year at the White House.
The best-known graduate of the class, President Barack Obama, is both working and living there, and he’s shown no reluctance to hire his classmates.
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Their classmate Michael B.G. Froman is a deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic security affairs.
David Kris, also ‘91, has been picked to head the National Security Division at the Department of Justice. And Thomas J. Perrelli, ‘91, has been nominated to be associate attorney general.
The 1991 graduates are just part of what the Harvard Law Record has called the “avalanche” of Harvard law alumni who have joined or are soon to join the Obama administration.
The best-known member of this group is Michelle Obama, the First Lady, and a 1988 Harvard Law graduate.
Daniel J. Meltzer, ‘75, and a professor at the law school during Obama’s time there, is the president’s principal deputy counsel.
Michael J. Gottlieb and Danielle Gray, 2003 graduates, are associate counsels to the president. Blake Roberts, Class of 2006, will be a deputy associate counsel.
Samantha Power, ‘99, is serving on the National Security Council. She won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 2003 for A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.
Power had been a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, as well as an adviser (sometimes controversial) to the Obama presidential campaign.
Todd Stern, ‘75, is the special envoy for climate change.
And Jocelyn Frye, ‘88, a law school classmate and friend of Michelle Obama, is serving as director of policy and projects for the First Lady and as a deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy.
Obama has nominated Elena Kagan, Harvard Law ‘86, to be the U.S. solicitor general. Kagan was dean of the law school. David W. Ogden, ‘81, has been nominated to be deputy attorney general.
One Harvard Law School graduate and 1991 alum not working at the White House is Bradford A. Berenson, a Republican and a former associate White House Council in the George W. Bush administration.
While at Harvard, Obama and Berenson worked together at the Harvard Law Review, Obama serving as president, Berenson as Supreme Court Editor.
According to Berenson, Obama may have learned how to mediate competing factions while running a Law Review staff that was divided not only by politics but also by legal philosophies.
“You know who the people are who, despite their politics, can reach across and be friendly to and make friends with folks who have different views,” Berenson told Frontline on PBS last year. “And Barack very much fell into the latter category.”
Obama will probably feel right at home at cabinet meetings, as the room will be full of lawyers:
There’s Vice President Joe Biden (Syracuse Law), Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. (Columbia University), Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (Albany), Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (University of Virginia), Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (Michigan) and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton (Yale University).
Gary Locke, the nominee to be secretary of commerce, graduated from Boston University Law School.
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Edward Liddy caught in the eye of AIG stormMarch 15, 2009 at 9:42am
AIG has been described as the company where federal dollars go to die. It may also be a career killer for Edward M. Liddy.
Lawsuit against Skull and Bones renews mystery about Geronimo’s remains
The descendants of Geronimo, the Apache chieftain whose skull is rumored to be part of the initiation rite of Yale’s Skull and Bones Society, filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding the return of his remains.
The lawsuit, which named Yale’s oldest and most powerful secret society, the university and the U.S. government, was brought by 20 members of the legendary warrior’s family on the 100th anniversary of his death.
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The society, whose membership includes three U.S. presidents, including two Bushes, supposedly makes new members kiss the Chiricahua Apache’s skull as part of their induction.
“It’s been 100 years since the death of my great-grandfather in 1909. It’s been 100 years of imprisonment,” Harlyn Geronimo said outside of court in Washington D.C.
“The spirit is wandering until a proper burial has been performed. The only way to put this into closure is to release the remains, his spirit, so that he can be taken back to his homeland in the Gila Mountains, at the head of the Gila River.”
The suit contends that Geronimo’s descendants are entitled to his remains and funerary possessions under the 1990 American Indian Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The Geronimo family is being represented by Ramsey Clark, who was attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson. “In this lawsuit, we’re going to find out if the bones are there or not,” Clark said.
The latest support for the claim that Geronimo’s remains had been swiped by members of the powerful clandestine society was uncovered two years ago by a researcher at Yale. It’s a June 1918 letter from one Bonesman, Winter Mead, to another, F. Trubee Davison:
“The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club . . . is now safe inside [the clubhouse] together with his well worn femurs, bit & saddle horn.”
Another account alleges that Prescott Bush was one of the grave robbers. But at least until now, no member of the society has ever come forward to answer questions.
We’ve written before about how Sen. John McCain tried to broker a meeting in the mid-1980s between George H.W. Bush and one of his Arizona constituents – a former Apache chieftain name Ned Anderson seeking the return of the remains.
Bush, however, wasn’t interested, and the matter was dropped, according to Alexandra Robbins, author of Secrets of the Tomb. A 2006 appeal for the skull’s return, this time to George W., from Harlyn Geronimo, also went unanswered, according to a report by the Associated Press.
For all the intrigue, some believe the whole thing is a story concocted by drunken frat boys.
“It’s all a bunch of poppycock,” said Towana Spivey, a Geronimo expert, a Chickasaw, and director of the Fort Sill National Historic Landmark Museum told the Washington Post. “He’s still buried where he was originally.”
Spivey says he is so certain because the Apaches deliberately misled outsiders as to the location of the grave, and a description of the tomb the Bonesmen allegedly found doesn’t match Geronimo’s.
Of course, Skull and Bones could clear up the controversy, if it wanted, by sending out its skull for forensic testing, said Garrick Bailey, professor of anthropology at the University of Tulsa and former member of the board that oversees the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
“You should be able to tell whether or not it’s that of an elderly Native American male,” Bailey told the Hartford Courant. “Geronimo was one of the great iconic figures of American Indian history, particularly as it relates to the spirit of resistance. If I was his descendant, I would be appalled that the question lingers.”
Yet those questions are what give a secret society its grasp on the imagination. The order, founded in 1832, has always been a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists because of its closely held secrets and its powerful membership.
In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, both the Democratic and Republican nominees were members. George W. Bush wrote in his 1999 autobiography: “[In my] senior year I joined Skull and Bones, a secret society; so secret, I can’t say anything more.”
When asked what it meant that both he and Bush were Bonesmen, former Presidential candidate John Kerry said, “Not much because it’s a secret.”
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Citigroup’s Pandit plays game of musical chairs with fedsFebruary 25, 2009 at 1:46pm
Vikram Pandit is still working out a rescue plan that would turn over as much as 40% of his bank to the U.S. government. The question is whether he will manage to hold onto his job – and whether he will want to.
John Yoo takes leave from Berkeley law faculty
Former Bush Administration official John Yoo has temporarily traded his job on the law faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, for a teaching gig in more conservative Orange County, CA.
Yoo, one of the architects of the Bush policy on torture, is spending this semester as a visiting professor at the relatively new Chapman University School of Law, which opened in 1995, reports the Los Angeles Times.
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Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, was a primary author of memos that argued that the president’s authorization of controversial interrogation tactics did not violate the Geneva Conventions.
The memos, which were later withdrawn by the Justice Department, justified harsh treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, including the controversial waterboarding technique.
But in an interview in his Chapman office, Yoo denied that Berkeley’s liberal tilt had anything to do with his decision. A tenured faculty member at Berkeley, he said he took the visiting professorship because he wanted to spend on a smaller, newer campus and to experience living in Southern California.
“I certainly don’t get upset about being criticized,” he said. “I would feel I wasn’t doing my job as an academic if I wasn’t writing or saying things that other people disagreed with.”
For the most part, students at Chapman have taken Yoo’s presence in stride, according to the Times.
“I think it’s interesting to have him there,” said Billy Essayli, a second-year law student who heads the campus California Republican Lawyers Association. Still, Essayli conceded that he was surprised there wasn’t a greater public outcry at Yoo’s arrival in January.
A statement encouraging civil debate is posted on the website of Chapman by Dean John C. Eastman.
“It would be simple for academic institutions to ignore views from one end or the other of the political spectrum,” Eastman wrote. “Indeed, all too many law schools have faculties that are much too homogenous with respect to their views on contested matters. We, on the other hand, pride ourselves on having built a law school that is now one of the most ideologically diverse in the nation.”
But now, some members of the Berkeley community who organized against him there are mobilizing to come to Orange County.
The anti-war activist group, World Can’t Wait, maintains a website in protest, www.firejohnyoo.org, and said it hopes to stage panels and distribute petitions at Chapman.
Yoo, however, shows no sign of being intimidated.
Last month, he wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal criticizing President Barack Obama, saying that his decisions to close Guantanamo and to terminate the CIA’s authority to interrogate terrorists had opened the door to future terrorist acts in the U.S.
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Can Arthur G. Sulzberger III go from cub reporter to savior?February 19, 2009 at 5:28pm
Following in his father’s footsteps, Arthur G. Sulzberger III reports to work Monday as a Metro desk reporter at The New York Times.
Latham & Watkins is feeder firm for Justice Department
Administrations come and go, but Latham & Watkins remains a constant – a white-shoe law firm that serves as a de-facto farm team for the U.S. Justice Department, regardless of a president’s political leanings.
“We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: Young law dogs with Department of Justice aspirations should consider Latham & Watkins,” advised the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. “The firm seems to be the DOJ’s home away from home.”
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The revolving door is also swinging in the other direction. While Ruemler heeds the call of government service in a Democratic administration, Alice S. Fisher, the Justice Department’s criminal division chief who oversaw high-profile prosecutions in counterterrorism and corporate fraud under George W. Bush, recently returned to the firm’s ranks.
And the two are hardly exceptions.
Other Latham & Watkins alumni who worked in the Bush Justice Department include heavyweights Michael Chertoff, who was assistant attorney general before becoming secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and Philip Perry, the vice-president’s son-in-law who served as associate attorney general before becoming general counsel for the Homeland Security department.
Serving in earlier Democratic and Republican administrations was partner Beth Wilkinson, who prosecuted Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing and who subsequently married Meet the Press moderator David Gregory.
Expanding beyond the Justice Department, the list of the firm’s notable alumni is even broader including Bruce Babbit, the former governor of Arizona and U.S. secretary of the Interior; Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox; and former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg.
Although the firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices throughout the world, including in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Brussels and Paris.
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This post is tagged with: Alice S. Fisher, Barack Obama, Beth Wilkinson, George W. Bush, Kathryn Ruemmler, Latham & Watkins, Law, Michael Chertoff, Philip Perry, Recent Stories, U.S. Department of JusticeRead related stories: Law · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Former HUD colleagues Cuomo, Gillibrand, cited as Senate prospectsJanuary 22, 2009 at 12:40pm
With Caroline Kennedy out, who is the frontrunner to replace Hillary Clinton as New York’s representative in the U.S. Senate?
Top Madoff players hire lawyers with ties to SEC, Justice department
Key players at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Inc. have hired some of the best-connected lawyers in the business.
Madoff’s attorney is Ira Sorkin, who once headed the New York office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and who also worked as a federal prosecutor in New York.
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Frank DiPascali, Madoff’s chief financial officer, is represented by Marc Mukasey, the leader in the white collar criminal defense practice of Bracewell and Giuliani and stepson of U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
While DiPascali has not been charged, he has been described as a key figure in the separate staff that worked closely with Bernard Madoff on the 17th floor of the firm’s office at the Third Avenue building known as the Lipstick Tower. That operation, which is believed to have orchestrated Madoff’s alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme, had its own computer systems, and did not process its trades through the Madoff firm.
The junior Mukasey has declined to say whether DiPascali is a target of investigators. But he, too, brings considerable strengths as a defense attorney: He worked for eight years as an assistant federal prosecutor; before that, he was a staff attorney for the SEC prosecuting securities fraud, according to his staff bio.
The elder Mukasey recused himself from the case yesterday, citing conflicts of interest because of his son’s role. In addition, Michael Mukasey is a 1959 graduate of the Ramaz School, a modern Orthodox Jewish school in New York that invested as much as $6 million in a fund that was a Madoff client, said Kenny Rochlin, Ramaz’s director of institutional advancement.
Madoff’s sons, Andrew and Mark, who first reported their father after he purportedly confessed to defrauding investors, have retained Martin Flumenbaum, senior partner in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Flumenbaum is considered one of the nation’s top litigators, representing Hollinger International and American International Group Inc., among other deep-pocketed clients.
He is also a former assistant federal prosecutor who led the successful tax prosecution of Sun Myung Moon in 1982, according to the biography posted on his firm’s site.
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This post is tagged with: Andrew Madoff, Bernard L. Madoff, Bracewell & Giuliani, Dickstein Shapiro LLC, Frank DiPascali, Ira L. Sorkin, Law, Marc Mukasey, Mark Madoff, Martin Flumenbaum, Michael Mukasey, Paul, Ramaz School, Recent Stories, Rifkind, Weiss, Wharton & GarrisonRead related stories: Law · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Schapiro likely to be questioned about Madoff tiesDecember 19, 2008 at 11:30am
Mary L. Schapiro, Barack Obama’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, is being described as the right person to help restore the commission’s battered reputation.
“If there is anybody who is going to reinvigorate the SEC, it is Mary,” David M. Becker, the commission’s former general counsel, told The Washington Post. “I have no doubt that with her leading the SEC, it will show its teeth whenever necessary.”
Dannehy given wide berth in investigation of U.S. attorney firings
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Kevin Ring is the latest Jack Abramoff associate to be indicted
Another member of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s team has been indicted as part of the Justice Department’s continuing probe of the corruption scandal that traumatized Washington and helped Republicans lose control of Congress in 2006.
Kevin Ring, 37, a onetime aide to California Rep. John Doolittle, pleaded not guilty yesterday to 10 charges of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice in an alleged scheme to lavish gifts on lawmakers and government officials in exchange for favors to his clients, many of them Indian tribes.
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His co-conspirators are listed as convicted former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican recently released from jail, employees of two other unidentified lawmakers and unidentified officials of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Interior.
On Capitol Hill, Ring had once been a rising star, working as an aide to Republican Rep. John Doolittle of California from 1993 to 1998. In 1998, he got a job with the Senate Judiciary subcommittee and in 1999 was executive director of a Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives before joining Abramoff as a lobbyist.
In 2002, he as named “Top Rainmaker” in a ranking of lobbyists by The Hill newspaper.
Prosecutors said yesterday that the corruption investigation is continuing and others may still be charged.
Tpmmuckraker points out that Ring’s indictment makes over 100 references to “Representative 5′ – apparently Doolittle, the California Republican and member of the Appropriations Committee, for whom Ring once worked.
According to the papers, Ring expensed at least one suite for a sports event, eight concert tickets (including for the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill), and five meals totaling more than $2,000 for Doolittle. He also bought 29 sports tickets, four concert tickets, nine meals, and one gift from Macy’s for Doolittle’s staff, particularly his legislative director, the indictment charges.
In return for those gifts, the indictment says that Doolittle proved himself “a good soldier” by chairing a hearing on the Puerto Rico statehood issue for an Abramoff client and holding up his opposition to an anti-gambling bill, among other favors.
Doolittle announced in January that he would not seek re-election. His attorneys complained in a statement yesterday that “portions of the Kevin Ring indictment were designed to make gratuitous references to the Congressman and his wife. This appears to have been done to titillate the public, with the foreseeable and therefore intended consequence of attempting to embarrass and pressure the Congressman.”
Tpmmuckraker also identifies Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico as another lawmaker believed to be in prosecutors’ sights.
The Abramoff investigation has ensnared only one congressman to date – Ney, who was released from prison last month after serving 17 months of a 30-month jail sentence.
But besides the conviction of Abramoff, prosecutors have also won the convictions of a number of lobbyists, aides to lawmakers and government officials, according to a Department of Justice press release, including:
- Former lobbyist Michael Scanlon, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services fraud.
- Former lobbyist and congressional aide Tony C. Rudy who pleaded guilty to honest services fraud, mail and wire fraud.
- Mark D. Zachares, a former high-ranking aide to the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and wire fraud.
- John C. Albaugh, a former chief of staff to ex-Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
- Robert Coughlin, a former Department of Justice employee, who pleaded guilty to a conflict of interest.
- Italia Federici, president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of the U.S. Senate’s investigation into the Abramoff scandal.
Jack Abramoff Sentenced to Four Years in Prison
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Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick admits to felony charges (Muckety.com)
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges, ending a long, scrappy battle to stay in office.
Kilpatrick agreed to plead guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, for committing perjury. He will serve four months in jail and five years’ probation, and will pay up to $1 million in restitution.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map
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An investigation of Kilpatrick’s activities was launched after the Detroit Free Press revealed in January that text messages showed Kilpatrick and Beatty had lied under oath when they denied having an extramarital affair.
The messages also showed that the two provided misleading testimony about firing former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown after he and former mayoral bodyguard Harold Nelthrope began investigating rumors of a party at the mayoral mansion.
Kilpatrick, elected in 2002 at age 31, was the youngest mayor in Detroit history. He is the son of U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.
His successor, Ken Cockrel Jr., also comes from a political family. His father, the late Ken Cockrel Sr., was a Detroit city councilman and civil rights activist.
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Smurfs promoter Stuart R. Ross charged with extortion
Stuart R. Ross, the man who brought the Smurfs to America, would seem to be starring in his own made-for-TV production, but it’s hardly a cartoon.
On Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau accused Ross, 71, and his lawyer of trying to extort up to $11 million from his son-in-law, David S. Blitzer.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map
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According to the district attorney’s office, Allison Blitzer and her father have been estranged for approximately six years and he has never met her children.
The arrest marks a fall from grace for Ross, a lawyer and entrepreneur who reportedly spotted the little blue cartoon Smurfs in Belgium while vacationing in 1976.
He purchased the North American distribution rights and then teamed with Wallace Berrie & Co. to distribute Smurfs merchandise.
NBC then created a television cartoon show based on the characters.
According to Morgenthau’s office, Ross began making monetary demands on Blitzer in December 2007 when he asked for money to start a business venture.
Blitzer sent him $15,000 in January. He sent another $50,000 in May, saying that would be the last money he would give.
In June, Ross demanded another $50,000 to $100,000. In one message, he vowed to “commit open warfare” if Blitzer didn’t send money.
He also threatened to go to the media with accusations that he said would “damage Blitzer’s reputation, ruin his career and even lead to his arrest.”
By July, Ross allegedly got help in his efforts from Stuart Jackson, 79, a friend and Manhattan lawyer. Jackson has also been charged with attempted grand larceny in the case.
At one point, Ross berated Blitzer for not cooperating with Jackson.
“David, this is your worst nightmare. Your father-in-law Stuart Ross,” Ross said in a phone call, according to the criminal complaint.
“You have been a discourteous prick to Stuart Jackson. I am going to continue to harass you. I am going to call you every day – four or five times a day – I am going to keep calling – I will continue to harass you.”
On Aug. 5, Ross allegedly told Blitzer that for $5.5 million he would give up any right he had to visit his daughter or grandchildren. And he said he wouldn’t communicate with Blitzer or anyone at Blackstone.
On Aug. 6, in a letter to Roger L. Stavis, Blitzer’s attorney, Jackson allegedly said he wanted twice as much, $11 million.
Stavis contacted the district attorney’s office before getting back to Jackson. On Aug. 21, Jackson and Ross met with Blitzer and Stavis. At that meeting, Blitzer agreed to pay $400,000 to Ross. Blitzer then gave Ross a $50,000 check.
The next day, police arrested Ross and Jackson, who face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
On Aug. 22, Blitzer also filed a civil suit against Ross.
According to Bloomberg.com, the suit states that Ross lost the licensing rights to the Smurfs and then had other setbacks because of “profligate spending, bad business decisions and a drinking problem.”
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Judge rules that White House staffers can be subpoenaed (Muckety)
A setback for the Bush administration came from a Bush appointee and former Kenneth Starr associate today.
Federal Judge John D. Bates ruled that two Bush staffers, one no longer at the White House, do not have absolute immunity from testifying before the House Judiciary Committee.
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Bates stresses that his decision is “very limited.” Nonetheless, it contrasts with two earlier decisions, both controversial, in which he sided with the White House.
In 2002, Bates dismissed the General Accounting Office’s attempt to have Vice President Dick Cheney reveal the names of the members of his energy task force. Bates ruled that the GAO did not have standing to sue.
In 2007, Bates threw out a lawsuit filed by Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, against Cheney and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s aide.
Plame had sued on the grounds that Cheney and Libby helped reveal to the press that she was a CIA operative.
Bates dismissed that lawsuit for jurisdictional reasons, as well.
If it stands, today’s decision means that Harriet Miers, the former Bush White House counsel, and Joshua Bolton, the current White House chief of staff, have to appear before the judiciary committee.
They could at that time choose not to respond, Bates wrote.
The committee subpoenaed Miers and Bolton to testify in the matter of the forced resignation of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006. Democrats have argued that the attorneys were asked to leave for political reasons.
The White House insisted that Miers and Bolton had immunity because of their positions in the executive branch.
The judiciary committee then sued.
Bates, 61, was named to the district court in 2001 by Bush.
A graduate of Wesleyan University and University of Maryland’s School of Law, he was in the U.S. Army for three years, serving a tour in Vietnam.
Later, he clerked for a federal judge and was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
From 1995 to mid-1997, Bates was deputy independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation headed by Kenneth Starr.
In 2005, Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court appointed Bates to serve on the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management.
In 2006, Chief Justice John Roberts, Rehnquist’s successor, appointed Bates to the U.S. Intelligence Foreign Surveillance Court.
The court decides on requests for surveillance warrants against foreign intelligence agents.
The White House did not indicate today whether it would appeal Bates’ decision. Earlier news reports speculated that the case would be appealed, regardless of outcome.
In his ruling, Bates encourages both the White House and the judiciary committee to “resume their discourse and negotiations in an effort to resolve their differences constructively, while recognizing each branch’s essential role.”
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