Law
December 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
A federal judge in California has ordered Stormy Daniels to pay $293,052.33 in attorney’s fees as a result of the defamation suit she brought, via her lawyer Michael Avenatti, against President Trump earlier this year. The suit concerned Trump’s tweet that Daniels’ allegation that an unknown man threatened her in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump is a “total con job.” Federal District Judge
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November 30, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Just in time for your weekend listening pleasure, Episode 99 is ready! This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Timbs v. Indiana, concerning the widespread practice of “civil asset forfeiture,” in which law enforcement will seize your property upon arrest (sometimes even without an arrest and criminal charge) and keep the money or asset for themselves. By coincidence this week I ran into the person
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November 29, 2018 — Scott Johnson
If John weren’t on vacation this week, he would have noted the Daily Beast story reporting that Avenatti brought the defamation lawsuit against President Trump in the name of Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) without her consent. If true, this represents serious professional misconduct. Stormy Daniels also raised issues regarding the funds Avenatti has raised via crowdfunding in her name. The Daily Beast story rested on this statement from Stormy Daniels:
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November 28, 2018 — Steven Hayward
A week or ten days back we linked to Michael Uhlmann’s speech to the Claremont Institute on “The Struggle Ahead“—the “struggle” being the ongoing political battle to preserve our constitutional order from the predations of the contemporary left that hates the Constitution and its principles. But we were remiss in not including an excerpt from Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams’ introduction of Michael, which offered a summary of some of Michael’s
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November 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Chief Justice John Roberts has rebuked President Trump for referring to “Obama judges.” Trump had responded to a ruling by district court judge Jon Tigar barring enforcement of his revisions to federal asylum rules by saying “this was an Obama judge.” The Chief Justice rejected Trump’s characterization. He said: We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group
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November 12, 2018 — Scott Johnson
I last spoke about Minnesota’s elimination of bias continuing legal education requirement for attorneys at the Federalist Society’s 2013 National Lawyers Convention. I called my talk “Bias in the air” and posted it on Power Line. The elimination of bias CLE requirement was formally adopted by the Minnesota Supreme Court and is implemented by the court’s enforcers at the Minnesota State Board of Continuing Legal Education. To satisfy the elimination
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November 10, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Matthew Whitaker is President Trump’s selection to replace Jeff Sessions. Whitaker will be the Acting Attorney General. Whitaker is qualified for the position. He served as Sessions’ chief of staff and, at one time, as a U.S. Attorney. Like almost anyone Trump might have named to replace Sessions, though, Whitaker has come in for bitter criticism from the Trump haters. They make three main arguments: (1) Whitaker can’t oversee the
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November 8, 2018 — Steven Hayward
For Power Line readers in the San Diego area, have I got the deal for you! And it’s free. Next Tuesday I’ll be delivering the annual Joan E. Bowles-James Madison Distinguished Lecture at the University of San Diego, at 6 pm. And as suggested above, it is free and open to the public. You can get all of the location details and such at this link (which you should pass
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November 2, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
I’ve been on jury duty this week. This partially explains my lack of production on Power Line. The case we heard involved pretty serious criminal charges. I think the defense lawyer would have opted to strike me from the panel had he been aware of my hard line blogging about various criminal justice matters. However, my writings never came up during voir dire, and both parties seemed fine with having
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October 11, 2018 — Scott Johnson
This past February Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought the dramatic indictment against Russian actors allegedly responsible for interference in the 2016 presidential election. The Department of Justice has posted the indictment online here. Politico covered the indictment in a good story by Michael Crowley and Louis Nelson. The indictment charged three Russian companies and 13 Russian individuals with election related crimes. I don’t think anyone (including Mueller) anticipated that one
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October 3, 2018 — Steven Hayward
If it wasn’t already evident that even if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court in a few days the left will carry on with a full-scale attack (including an impeachment investigation), then the email below from Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect sent out yesterday makes the matter explicit. I’ll intersperse my comments in places: The Back-Up Way of Defeating Kavanaugh. Assume the worst: Let’s posit that within
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September 21, 2018 — Scott Johnson
In the memoir Cardiac Arrest: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO on the Feds’ Hit List (written with Stephen Saltarelli), Howard Root tells the story of his experience as chief executive officer of Vascular Solutions caught in the crosshairs of the federal government when prosecutors sought to put his company out of business and to send him to the big house. Howard touched on one aspect of his story in
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September 9, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Andrew McCarthy’s weekly NR column poses this pointed question: “For precisely what federal crimes is the president of the United States under investigation by a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department?” He observes: “It is intolerable that, after more than two years of digging — the 16-month Mueller probe having been preceded by the blatantly suspect labors of the Obama Justice Department and FBI — we still do not
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September 6, 2018 — Scott Johnson
We have closely followed the killing of Justine Damond by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 last year. The case has received international attention and justly so. Noor has now been charged homicide and manslaughter charges here in state court. Noor is also the defendant in a civil lawsuit brought by Justine’s family here in federal court. I wrote recently about the federal lawsuit in “Notes on the
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August 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest on the side of the plaintiff in Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College. Students For Fair Admissions, an organization of students and parents, alleges that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants when making admissions decisions. The Justice Department opened a Title VI investigation into Harvard’s admissions process in 2017 based upon a complaint filed by more than 60
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August 21, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
When President Trump was asked today about the Paul Manafort convictions, he made two points: (1) that Manafort worked not only for his campaign, but also for Ronald Reagan and Bob Dole and (2) that the Manafort convictions have nothing to do with Russia collusion. Trump did not answer questions about Michael Cohen’s guilty plea. Trump’s first point about Manafort doesn’t apply to Cohen. The sleazy lawyer was Trump’s guy,
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August 21, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Some years ago, a lawyer was kicked to death by a moose in the parking lot of the federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska. That’s how the story goes, anyway. Local lawyers said, that’s a really bad day in court. President Trump didn’t have that bad a day in court today, but it wasn’t great. I was on the radio, hosting the Laura Ingraham show, when breaking news came across the
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