Lots of tea being spilled on the SDFLA "Grand Conspiracy" case(s)

The NY Times has the latest here:

Still, the pressure has not relented. The dozen prosecutors still pursuing the inquiry are fast-tracking narrower cases against some chief targets that could be brought quickly, according to people briefed on their work. Leadership of the effort has defaulted back to Washington, and is now being directly overseen by one of Mr. Blanche’s top deputies, Aakash Singh, those people said.

A Justice Department official said leaders in Washington had “full confidence” in the prosecutors now working on the case and would act to uphold the law should “evidence of misconduct present itself.”

Even if charges are never filed, Mr. Trump has already instilled fear in — and imposed steep financial costs on — potential targets, in his view giving them a taste of what he experienced when he was under investigation.

Two targets have borne a particular brunt: James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director fired by Mr. Trump in the early stages of the Russia inquiry, and John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director who played a role in instigating that investigation.

nside the Justice Department, another price is being paid.

The investigation has upended the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida, one of the most important in the country, which has been plagued by staff departures and low morale under its Trump-appointed leader, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, according to current and former prosecutors. The problems with the grand conspiracy case have exacerbated what officials in Washington have described as a growing lack of confidence in Mr. Reding Quiñones by his superiors.

The office once had more than 200 lawyers. It is now slightly more than half that size, after a spate of firings and resignations.

Prosecutors have watched the case play out with embarrassment and horror. Many have been so unwilling to join the investigation that Mr. Reding Quiñones, an Army reservist, was forced to bring in military lawyers to backfill the ranks.

The chief of the office’s criminal division has been sidelined. The office’s health care fraud unit has been decimated. Many prosecutors say the office feels leaderless, and are worried that a place once known for big drug and white-collar cases has pivoted to politics.

Even furniture has been repurposed to equip the inquiry’s two work spaces, one on the fifth floor of the main Miami office and the other up the coast in Fort Pierce.

***

But the move to Florida did not translate into immediate success.

One big problem, in the view of Mr. Blanche’s aides, was Mr. Reding Quiñones, whom they viewed as a feckless and inexperienced manager not capable of running the day-to-day operations of his office, let alone the grand conspiracy case.

Moreover, they felt that Mr. Reding Quiñones spent too much time in Washington and too little in Florida. To address that concern, Mr. Singh recently removed him from the attorney general’s advisory committee, which meets at department headquarters, to refocus his energies on Miami, according to two people with knowledge of the move.

But he was hardly the only problem.

BREAKING -- Your new magistrate judge is Aaron Weiss

 Congrats to Aaron S. Weiss of Carlton Fields, who is your new Magistrate Judge.

 

Legal Titan Joe Klock Passed Away

By Jordi C. Martínez-Cid

Joseph P. “Joe” Klock, Jr., one of the best-known Miami trial lawyers of his generation, died on October 4, 2026, surrounded by his children.

For most of the country, Joe Klock will always be the lawyer for Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2000 presidential election litigation. He argued for the Secretary of State twice before the Supreme Court in eleven days, first on December 1, 2000, in Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, and again on December 11 in Bush v. Gore, sharing the lectern with Ted Olson, Paul Hancock, Laurence Tribe, and David Boies. He was, for a moment, late-night TV comedy fodder because he called two Supreme Court Justices the wrong names. Afterwards, he told reporters, “I was so tired that I was happy I didn’t call one of them Justice Gore.” Joe took it all in stride and kept his sense of humor. Few lawyers anywhere have argued two Supreme Court cases in less than two weeks, let alone two that decided a presidency.

The national headlines were a sliver of the career. Joe was a Miami lawyer through and through. Born and raised in Philadelphia, his entire family (including seven younger sisters) re-located to Miami when he enrolled in law school at the University of Miami in 1970. He then spent more than three decades at Steel Hector & Davis, one of the city’s institutional firms, where he rose to managing partner and chairman. After Steel Hector merged with Squire Sanders & Dempsey in 2005, he moved to Epstein Becker & Green and, in 2009, joined Rasco Klock in Coral Gables, where he practiced until his passing. He had many clients, among them the Fanjuls, the sugar magnates. He inspired fierce loyalty and, as a result, the acronym FOJ came to be understood as Friend of Joe’s.

Joe also leaves a long legacy of work in and for the community. Putting aside his many paid cases, Joe was known for his prolific pro bono work, and he served on both the boards for Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. I know one person who, in an emergency, introduced himself to Joe and said some version of “Joe, I went to Belen and need your help.” Without more, Joe helped, and when pressed to accept compensation, merely said “pay it forward.” He is a man that did a lot of good, oftentimes without thought of lucre.

Ironically, he once had a sign that—in twisted imitation of the sign that hangs in 73 West Flagler—said “We Who Labor Here Seek Only Fees.” It was crass on the surface, but surprisingly deep. He explained that the sign was to remind his clients that the legal process was painful and should not be engaged lightly. If they asked him to, he would march to the courthouse because he was “seeking fees” but they should really reflect on what they were seeking and if it would be worth it.

He is, as far as I know, the only man my father ever envied. After a particularly long dinner sharing stories and laughs, the waiter approached Joe Klock (and not my father) to say, “Mr. Klock, is it alright with you if we close the buffet?” My father claims he was only envious for a moment, but I am not sure he ever got over it.

He leaves behind four children, Susan E. Klock, Robert C. Klock, Peter J. Klock, II, and Kathleen Mendez, with Kathleen being the only one that is not a lawyer in the community. Our condolences to his family, to his colleagues at Rasco Klock and his previous firms, and to the many lawyers who learned from him. The family has kindly allowed me to share information regarding the memorial services, and I will update this post once I have that information. Rest in Peace, Joe.

UPDATE (PLANS CHANGED): Funeral mass will be held at Church of the Epiphany, 8080 SW 54th Court, Miami, at 11:30 a.m. on October 16, 2026.

FBA Gala Honoring David Markus and Judge Gayles

By Jordi C. Martínez-Cid

The South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association had its annual Awards and Installation Gala at the Frost Museum of Science this Saturday, ushering in the reign of president Erica S. Zaron, who heads the Federal Litigation, Appeals and Professional Development section of the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office. The chapter dressed the evening in all white, in the style of the Dîner en Blanc parties, which is both very chic and very dangerous for a slob like me, particularly since I sponsored dark brown espresso martinis.

Outgoing president John R. Byrne, in a final moment of inspired leadership, told all in attendance that he was against the dress code and blamed everything on Erica Zaron, before leading attendees in the pledge of allegiance.

The chapter honored two people this blog’s readers know well: Judge Darrin P. Gayles received the Edward B. Davis Award for Service to the Federal Bench and Bar, affectionately known as "the Ned," and fearless leader David Oscar Markus, blog founder, received the Distinguished Member Service Award, which the chapter now calls "the Bob,” for the late Bob Josefsberg.

The Ned

The award is named for Judge Edward B. “Ned” Davis, a West Palm Beach native and Army veteran who practiced in Miami for nearly two decades before President Carter appointed him to this court in 1979. He served as Chief Judge from 1997 to 2000, retired in June 2000, and passed away in 2010. By the Federal Judicial Center’s count, his commission issued on October 5, 1979, exactly 47 years ago. The list of past Ned recipients reads like a short history of the district: Judge Federico A. Moreno, Clerk of Court Steven M. Larimore, Magistrate Judge Robert L. Dube, Judge Donald L. Graham, Circuit Court Judge Stanley Marcus, Judge Alan S. Gold, Judge Patricia A. Seitz, Judge Marcia G. Cooke (posthumously), Cathy Wade Babyak, Judge William M. Hoeveler, Magistrate Judge Peter R. Palermo and, last year, Judge Beth Bloom.

Judge Gayles fits that company, and in one respect he fits it literally: when President Obama nominated him in 2014, it was to fill the seat Judge Seitz vacated. The Senate confirmed him unanimously that June, making him the first openly gay Black man to serve as a federal district judge. His path to that seat ran through nearly every courthouse in town — assistant state attorney in Miami-Dade, assistant district counsel with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Assistant United States Attorney in this district, and then a decade on the state bench as a Miami-Dade County Court judge and an Eleventh Judicial Circuit judge. Few judges on our court have seen the Miami justice system from as many angles.

He was introduced by Judge Jacqueline Becerra who emphasized his dedication to both public service and to the people he cares about. Judge Gayles has Judge Becerra's back, quite literally, acting as an auxiliary U.S. Marshal to her at court functions.

The Bob

The chapter created the Distinguished Member Service Award in 2024 to recognize members who have given exemplary service to the chapter or to the bench. Stephanie Turk received the first one, and Oliver Ruiz received it last year. It now carries the name of Bob Josefsberg, who died in July 2025 at 86.

Bob needs little introduction. A Brooklyn native, Dartmouth and Yale Law graduate, and member of The Florida Bar since 1962, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in this district, general counsel to Governor Bob Graham, and he spent more than four decades at Podhurst Orseck. He collected nearly every professionalism and pro bono award the Florida bar has to give, including the Dade County Bar’s David Dyer Professionalism Award, The Florida Bar’s Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award, and the Florida Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor. When he died, David wrote here that Bob “was a gentle giant.” As David noted on Friday, in flagging a Daily Business Review piece by Meaghan Goldstein and Katie Mitchell titled “What Would Bob J. Do?: Re-Examining Civility Today.” That question, "What would Bob J. do?", is about as good a standard for the award as the chapter could have written. He was a mentor to many.

After Harvard Law School, David clerked for then-Chief Judge Ned Davis. He went on to Williams and Connolly and the Federal Public Defender’s Office before founding what is now Markus/Moss, and he served as president of this FBA chapter in 2007–08. So on Saturday night, a former Davis clerk accepted the Bob in the same ceremony at which the Ned went to Judge Gayles.

And then there is this blog. David started it in the summer of 2005. He explained the idea to Florida Trend early on with characteristic modesty: “Lawyers are the biggest gossips in town. This is just a forum for the lawyers to talk about all the great stuff going on in the busiest district in the United States.” Twenty-one years later, it remains the first place (I hope) many of us check to learn what is happening on North Miami Avenue and beyond. David has kept it candid without letting it become cruel. That is its own form of service to the bench and bar, and it is fitting that the chapter recognized it.

He was introduced by Judge Kathleen Williams (Ned recipient for 2012) who was adamant that she is not the source of information for this blog. She said many kind and aggrandizing things about David which was appropriate given that David did not talk about himself during his speech at all.

The End

Congratulations to Judge Gayles, to David, to President Zaron and the new board, and to the chapter for an evening that honored both the people and the traditions that make this district what it is.

"What Would Bob J. Do?: Re-Examining Civility Today"

That's the title of this very nice piece in the DBR by Meaghan Goldstein and Katie Mitchell.

It starts this way:

Civility is a popular buzzword in legal circles, but perhaps not as popular in practice. The test comes in the ordinary moments and small decisions in litigation, which ultimately shape our daily lives: the email you’re about to send, the argument you’re about to make, the extension you’re asked to agree to. During the past year, when faced with uncertainty, we’ve found ourselves returning to one question in these moments: What would Bob J. do?

One year ago, the world lost Bob Josefsberg. We lost a mentor and a role model, and a true gentleman in the courtroom and out. We lost the first lawyer we worked under, who contributed so much to the formation of our own careers, but also the man who was mentor and teacher to so many people at KTT, including our founders. We lost the grandfather in our mentorship family tree, so to speak. But we have not lost the legacy.

As the calendar marks what would have been his 88th birthday, we find ourselves reflecting on the lessons Bob taught us, which, at their core, were quite simple: being a good person is part of being a good lawyer. 

Great timing for this piece as the FBA will be honoring Bob tomorrow night at its gala.  

Judge Leibowitz strikes down § 611 non-citizen voting statute (as applied)

By David Oscar Markus

Judge David Leibowitz issued an important 31-page opinion today holding that Congress had no power to pass 18 U.S.C. § 611, the federal statute that makes it a crime for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election. The government alleged that Chelsea Cox voted in Broward County in 2020 knowing she was not a citizen. It charged her with a misdemeanor. Judge Leibowitz appointed Paul Clement's firm as amicus, ordered a second round of briefing, and held oral argument. Then he held the statute unconstitutional as applied to Cox and dismissed the Information.

You gotta read this centire opinion.  It's awesome.

It opens:

This is an unusual criminal case. It rests upon a forty-year-old federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 611, that prohibits the act of voting in a federal election by a non-U.S. citizen. Until very recently, no federal court has been presented with the following question about that statute: Did Congress have Constitutional authority to enact it?1 That’s unusual, all by itself.

But this case is even more unusual than that, because the Government’s principal defense of the statute’s constitutionality invokes a single Supreme Court case that is very, very weak. Let me say that a different way. The leading case cited by the Government to uphold the statute is of “minimal precedential value” (that’s not my characterization, it’s Justice Scalia’s; we’ll get to that), and the application of other binding precedent shows that the Government’s leading case simply does not control this one. So why does the Government lead with such a weak hand? Because it’s the best hand it can play. And why is that? Because the text, structure, and original public meaning of the Constitution show that Congress does not have the constitutional power to enact this statute. 

Cox moved to dismiss and the government responded. Judge Leibowitz then Paul Clement and Chadwick Harper of Clement & Murphy as amicus curiae. They took it on pro bono. The order makes clear they weren't there for either side. Their job was to give the court "a thorough and candid view of the relevant legal authorities." Judge Leibowitz thanked them for acting "in the finest tradition of the federal bar."

The government's main argument was Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970), where the Supreme Court upheld Congress lowering the voting age to 18 for federal elections. The problem is that Mitchell had no majority rationale. Justice Black relied on the Elections Clause. Four other Justices relied on the Fourteenth Amendment. Five Justices rejected each theory. As Judge Leibowitz put it: "Here's the weird part, and it has real bite for our case."

He walked through Marks and the Eleventh Circuit cases applying it and concluded that Mitchell holds only that Congress can regulate voting age in federal elections. He rejected the government's broad reading. He also rejected Cox's position that Mitchell has no precedential value at all.

The government tried to wave off Justice Scalia's description of Mitchell in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council as "of minimal precedential value." Dicta, said the government. Judge Leibowitz answered with Judge Carnes: "there is dicta and then there is dicta, and then there is Supreme Court dicta."

Article I, Section 2 and the Seventeenth Amendment tie voter qualifications for Congress to the qualifications each state sets for its own legislature. Article II leaves presidential electors to the states. The Framers considered giving Congress the power to set voter qualifications and said no. George Mason called it a power that "would be a dangerous [one] in the hands of the [federal] Legislature."

Section 611 has an "unless" clause that carves out state and local races where state or local law lets non-citizens vote. So § 611 bars non-citizens from federal races even in a state that lets them vote. Clement called that clause "the most damning textual evidence of Congress' overambitious intent." Judge Leibowitz agreed that § 611 is a voter qualification law. Neither the immigration power nor the Elections Clause saves it. As Justice Scalia wrote in ITCA, Congress may regulate "how federal elections are held, but not who may vote in them."

The amicus brief shows up all over the opinion. Clement's team flagged that § 611 validly reaches D.C. elections, which is why the court ruled only on the as-applied challenge. It rejected the government's reliance on a footnote in Kusper v. Pontikes. And it sketched the statute Congress could have written: one that makes it a federal crime to vote in violation of a state's voter qualifications. The court agreed it would "be difficult to identify a constitutional flaw" in that one.

It's a fun opinion to read.  And there are a bunch of similar cases pending (one went to trial a few weeks ago before Judge Becerra and the defendant was acquitted).  It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

The SDFLA’s Aileen Wuornos Connection

By John R. Byrne

America is fascinated by serial killers. If you need more proof of that, HBO Max is streaming yet another documentary on Aileen Wuornos, the woman who was convicted of murdering six men. The documentary is titled "Unmasking a Monster." There have been multiple dramatizations of the Wuornos story, including, most famously, the movie "Monster," which earned Charlize Theron an Oscar for her portrayal of Wuornos.

How does this relate to the SDFL, you ask? Judge Raag Singhal actually represented Wuornos. Not at trial, though. His involvement came later. A Broward County judge appointed him to represent Wuornos in connection with complaints she had about her treatment in state prison. In that capacity, Judge Singhal wrote a letter to the justices of the Florida Supreme Court expressing concern about Wuornos's mental condition and, more specifically, whether she was competent to be executed. I'm linking to it here. Acknowledging that Wuornos herself was essentially asking to be executed, Singhal wrote: “It would seem to me that we should not be eager to execute an individual simply because she is a volunteer.” You can hear Judge Singhal's voice when you read that line, right? 

The letter got the Court's attention. The Court treated Singhal’s concerns as a claim that Wuornos might not be competent to be executed and referred the matter to then-Governor Jeb Bush. A few days later, Bush temporarily stayed the execution and ordered that Wuornos be examined by three psychiatrists. They ultimately concluded that she was competent to be executed, and Bush lifted the stay. Wuornos was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

One of Those "Only in Miami" Cases

By John R. Byrne

Ever been passing through the Grove and spotted a “diminutive, nattily dressed fellow with dark, bushy eyebrows and a conspicuous toupee”? If so, you may have seen Leslie Roberts, the man the Miami New Times describes as the “notorious” Miami art dealer. 

Now a federal judge is looking for him.

Roberts, who previously pleaded guilty and served prison time for selling forged Peter Max works, was supposed to be in federal court last Friday for another sentencing. This time, he’s being sentenced for selling forged Andy Warhol works.

But he didn’t show up.

Judge Altman has continued the sentencing for a week while the government and Roberts’s lawyer try to find him.

The Warhol forgery scheme was quite elaborate. It even involved a co-conspirator posing as a “senior art appraisal authenticator” to authenticate the works. The guy reportedly showed up dressed in black and wearing white gloves and everything.

I’m sharing an article here that includes a picture of Roberts.

A friendly bit of advice: If you see him, exercise caution regarding any significant art purchases.