Jose Padilla's First Appearance

I attended Jose Padilla's first appearance today in the Southern District of Florida. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber presided. The lead Miami prosecutor on the case is Russell Killinger, a well-respected veteran in the Southern District of Florida. In court, Judge Garber told Padilla that his lawyers, Andrew Patel and Donna Newman, called chambers and said they wanted to appear, so the Judge postponed the hearing until tomorrow at 4PM. Just in case, the Miami Federal Public Defender's office was present in court.

Padilla appeared calm in court, answering the Judge politely with short yes-or-no responses. Garber explained to Padilla his rights, which was interesting as Padilla has been held for the past three years while lawyers wrangled over what sorts of rights he has.

Padilla had a short haircut. He was wearing glasses, black sneakers and an orange jumpsuit. The amount of security was amazing. Helicopters were flying over the courthouse. There were numerous marshals and court security officers in the courtroom. And there was lots of press. I'm sure they were disappointed by the three minute hearing.

Nevertheless, there was a certain electricity in the courtroom. The Southern District is a very exciting place to practice law right now, especially with Padilla and Abramoff fighting for above-the-fold coverage.

Jack Abramoff's hats

So everyone can see what the comment below was referring to, here are the two hats Abramoff wore for the DC plea and the Miami plea.

And the Justice Building Blog calls us too law based...

Bigger than Abramoff?

The Supreme Court agreed with the government's request to transfer Padilla to the Southern District of Florida to face criminal charges here. Nothing in the order... Just a summary thing. Here is SCOTUS Blog's summary of the action. Now it's a toss-up between Abramoff and Padilla for biggest case in the country right now...

Abramoff plea and other items...

Here is Jack Abramoff's plea agreement that was entered into here in Miami. A couple things to note -- Abramoff agreed to over $20 million in loss, that he used sophisticated means, more than minimal planning, that his actions affected a financial institution, and that he derived more than a million bucks... More significantly, he agreed that the sentencing guidelines would be binding and that he would not appeal his sentence. His only chance to get under the 70-87 month guideline sentence is if he successfully cooperates and if the government files a motion saying so. He and his lawyers must be pretty sure he can give up some big fish...

On a lighter note, a commenter points out:

Anonymous said...
What's the deal with Abramoff's hats? In D.C. he wore an old school fedora and down here he had a baseball cap on. I know his lawyers are giving him excellent legal advice, but who is giving him fashion advice?

Biggest case in the country?

Although the Abramoff case is getting tons of press, I don't think it's getting enough. To me, this is not only the biggest case in the Southern District of Florida right now, it's the biggest case in the country.