Tuesday, November 12, 2013

SCOTUSblog for sale (UPDATED with Kim Rothstein's sentence)

I wonder how much it will go for. We can ask co-founder Amy Howe at tomorrow's federal bar luncheon.  Here's the AP:

The blog got a huge boost in credibility when it hired veteran reporter Lyle Denniston, who began covering the Supreme Court during the Eisenhower administration. Goldstein attracted a deep-pocketed sponsor in Bloomberg Law, the legal research unit of Bloomberg LP, and says he now spends $500,000 a year on the blog. The relationship with Bloomberg is in its third and final year, Goldstein said.
Next year, Goldstein said he intends to sell SCOTUSblog. To that end, he wants a formal press credential for Denniston, whose pass is courtesy of a Boston public radio station for which he works only rarely, and maybe even Howe.
The formal recognition he seeks is part of a series of moves aimed at making SCOTUSblog more attractive to prospective buyers. "We put more effort into covering the Supreme Court than any other organization in American history," Goldstein says, including in his claim even specialty legal publications like the American Lawyer.
The court, though, has remained noncommittal about how to treat SCOTUSblog. Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said she is reviewing the credentialing process for the first time in nearly 40 years. "We won't act on any pending requests until we have completed that process," Arberg said.
I'm also putting this blog for sale if anyone is interested... We'll start the bidding at $1 million.



In other news, Kim Rothstein is to be sentenced today.  I really don't see how sending her to jail does anyone any good.  Probation is sufficient here.  The Sun-Sentinel has background on her sentencing memo by David Tucker:

Just days before Kim Rothstein will be sentenced for hiding expensive jewelry from federal authorities, the former socialite has filed for divorce from her imprisoned Ponzi schemer husband, court records show.
"Last week, Kim filed for divorce from Scott Rothstein," her attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo filed Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
Her husband physically and mentally abused her, openly cheated on her, controlled her every move and kept her in the dark about his crimes, her defense team said.
When she confronted him, she said, he yelled at her: "You can't walk away from me, Kimmy. I'm the President of [expletive] Florida and I'll say when you can come and go!"
Kim Rothstein and her friend Stacie Weisman are to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon. Both women admitted they tried to hide about $1 million worth of jewelry from federal authorities after Scott Rothstein admitted he ran the biggest investment fraud scheme in South Florida history.
It was her husband's idea to hide the jewelry from prosecutors and bankruptcy authorites who were seizing the couple's ill-gotten assets, Kim Rothstein's defense attorneys say, but she takes full responsibility for doing it. The couple communicated through coded letters about their plan while Scott Rothstein was held at a secret location before he was imprisoned, the lawyers wrote in court records.
"Kim is fully responsible for her behavior. However, it was her husband, Scott Rothstein who originally requested that she take some family heirlooms, watches and other items of value as insurance," her lawyers, David Tucker and David Kotler, wrote in court records. "Scott also recommended that Kim turn these items over to someone whom she trusted to sell them."
Kim Rothstein claims that through their coded letters, her husband supervised the sale of the assets they were trying to hide from authorities and also her attempts to get the loot back so she could "come clean" with authorities after realizing how much legal trouble she was in.

UPDATE -- Judge Rosenbaum sentenced Kim Rothstein to 18 months in prison. 

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Horse shit - she deserves some jail time - she was on his arm throughout the preposterous fraud and she tried to steal proceeds after she knew how badly hurt many people had been, thus attempting to rob them of a chance at even limited restitution.

Not too much time though - a year and a day would be sufficient, but not greater, etc...

Anonymous said...

If my client said the things she's said, I doubt she would get credit for acceptance.

Anonymous said...

18 months!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Kim's been watching "Orange is the New Black"

Anonymous said...

You get 2 years around here for a little credit card fraud. She got the rich girl discount.

Anonymous said...

Great show!

Rumpole said...

I was offered $29.95 and countered for $56.50 and we're still negotiating.

2 years seems harsh. she could have proved her point with six months.

Anonymous said...

18 months is a fair sentence considering the fact that she attempted to perpetuate a $1M fraud upon the victims of Rothstein's ponzi scheme. I don't buy the claim that she was abused by Rothstein. I also don't buy the file-for-divorce-right-before-sentencing ploy. The best thing is that if what she claims is true--that Rothstein came up with the idea to conceal assets--then his efforts to get a reduced sentence will be negatively affected.

Anonymous said...

Why not just give her an apology?

Anonymous said...

She's trailer trash

MC Waste Services, Inc said...

http://appealattorneylaw.com/2013/11/13/donawa-v-united-states-attorney-general-no-12-13526-eleventh-circuit-holds-that-possession-of-cannabis-with-intent-to-sell-or-deliver-under-florida-statute-893-131a2-is-not-aggravated-felony/

MC Waste Services, Inc said...

http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/PubArticleDBR.jsp?id=1202627492222&Circuit_Judge_Jack_Tuter_To_Oversee_Adorno_Petition&slreturn=20131012204019 the process is rigged

David Tucker said...

As i lawyer i get to review the evidence and then decide..people do not just begin cutting themselves out of boredom....there is not big conspiracy about the divorce...we just didnt do it till the end..and its easy to judge others based upon what we see in the media..as i stated at the sentencing..before meeting her..i did...i was wrong..she handled this case with great dignity and stayed above the fray..