Trump indictment unsealed

 Here it is.

Judge Cannon assigned to Trump case, ABC reports

 Here's the article:

The summons sent to former President Donald Trump and his legal team late Thursday indicates that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to oversee his case, at least initially, according to sources briefed on the matter.

Cannon's apparent assignment would add yet another unprecedented wrinkle to a case involving the first federal charges against a former president: Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in 2019, meaning that, if Trump is ultimately convicted, she would be responsible for determining the sentence – which may include prison time – for the man who elevated her to the role.

A federal grand jury voted to indict Trump on at least seven federal charges late Thursday as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The indictment comes after more than 100 documents with classified markings were found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022.

Trump Indicted

By John R. Byrne

The shoe has officially dropped. CNN covers it here. Initial appearance will be next Tuesday. Going to be a busy courthouse. No word yet on judge assignment. 

Judge Raag Singhal shows us what real judging is like... issues sentence of time served.

 Check out the sentencing transcript below.  We need more judges like Judge Singhal, who recognizes that not every conviction requires jail or even probation:

It's the judgment the Court that on this particular

case Mr. Cherenfant not be placed in custody, be technically

sentenced to a sentence of time served.

With regard to probation, what I'll do just for record

purposes, I'm going to place him on one day probation with no

special conditions. And I'm going to automatically early

terminate it once I finish what I have to say.

So Mr. Cherenfant, the other people in this courtroom

have heard this before, but you come to me, and I'm in a

position where I've presided over just about 10,000 sentencing

hearings. That's a lot more sentencing hearings than most

people. Between being a lawyer and a judge, I've been in the

criminal court system every day since June 5th, 1990. So this

is actually my 33rd anniversary of being in a criminal court.

And you did something wrong, but I've never had a

defendant appear before me who has had such an exemplary past.

And one thing that criminal lawyers know is that you try to

take the full measure of a man when you sentence them, and you

don't judge them by their worst day. And frankly, that

argument's designed for people that have had a lot of bad days.

And so that's why they talk about the worst day. You don't

even have a lot of bad days. I mean, I'm stretching to find

another bad day. I don't think the traffic ticket's

necessarily a bad day. I mean, it caused you to make positive

changes in your life.

But, you know, you did a lot of things here to try to

help you. You worked with the government in the sense that

this case came before the Court via an information, not an

indictment, and you worked with your lawyer, and you admitted

your guilt. And I know that you and your children and your

wife will be very successful going forward. You just have to

keep doing the things that you've been doing. And, of course,

if you travel to Haiti again, you know what these requirements

are. And I do wish you the best of luck. 

Cherenfant Sentencing by David Oscar Markus on Scribd

um.... legal writing?

 

Grand jury in *Florida* to hear document case against Trump

 Interesting that the special counsel has chosen Florida instead of D.C.  From NBC:

A federal grand jury will meet this week in Florida to hear evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation of former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

It is not clear how the court proceedings in Florida relate to the work of a separate grand jury in Washington, where prosecutors had been presenting evidence and witness testimony for months. The development was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Why prosecutors are using multiple grand juries, and whether they are ready to seek an indictment in either jurisdiction is unknown. The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation.

Even Donald Trump deserves the protections of Attorney-Client Privilege

An open letter to my liberal criminal defense lawyer colleagues:

I know, I know -- you really don't like Donald Trump.  And even though you are a criminal defense lawyer, you don't mind him being charged or even convicted.  

I'm not going to try to change your mind on any of that.

But... what prosecutors and judges are doing in order to obtain that charge and conviction should give you great concern.  Specifically, according to this New York Times article, the government has forced one of Trump's lawyers, Evan Corcoran, to testify before the grand jury and to give up his work product, including written and voice notes.

This is absolutely insane.

From the Times:

Government investigators almost never obtain a clear lens into a lawyer’s private dealings with their clients, let alone with such a prominent one as Mr. Trump. A recording like the voice memo Mr. Corcoran made last year — during a long drive to a family event, according to two people briefed on the recording — is typically shielded by attorney-client or work-product privilege. Some details of the notes were reported earlier by The Guardian.

But in March, a federal judge ordered Mr. Corcoran’s recorded recollections — now transcribed onto dozens of pages — to be given to the office of the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the documents investigation.

The decision by the judge, Beryl A. Howell, pierced the privilege that would have normally protected Mr. Corcoran’s musings about his interactions with Mr. Trump. Those protections were set aside under what is known as the crime-fraud exception, a provision that allows prosecutors to work around attorney-client privilege if they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services were used in furthering a crime.

But using crime fraud to obtain Corcoran's lengthy voice memos to himself about his interactions with the former president is a huge stretch of that doctrine and may be used in the future to get your notes with your clients.  We should all be pissed.  

 Unfortunately, the order by Judge Beryl Howell (a former narcotics prosecutor, who helped create and defend the Patriot Act) is sealed so we can't see the reasoning.  But the Times has this:

Judge Howell’s memorandum compelling Mr. Corcoran to answer questions in front of a grand jury and to produce his notes described the lawyer as essentially a casualty of Mr. Trump’s months of gamesmanship with investigators and National Archives officials about returning the documents, according to a person familiar with the memo’s contents.

As The New York Times reported in April, Judge Howell wrote in the memorandum, according to the person familiar with its contents, that Mr. Trump’s earlier actions and “misdirection” of archives officials’ efforts to retrieve what turned out to be more than a dozen boxes of records were a “dress rehearsal” for the May subpoena.

 If prosecutors can get a criminal defense lawyers' notes and impressions every time a client offers some misdirection, then get ready for a flood of motions asking for our privileged files.  

This isn't the way, even if the target is Donald Trump.

Jury Out in Carollo Trial

 By John R. Byrne

A few weeks back, the blog covered courtroom photograph-gate from the Joe Carollo trial. It's now in the jury's hands. The plaintiffs, businessmen William "Bill" Fuller and Martin Pinilla, allege that Carollo used City machinery to target their businesses because they supported his political opponent. Plaintiffs are seeking $100 million. According to records obtained by the Herald, before trial began, the City had already paid $2 million in attorneys' fees to Carollo's lawyers.

There were some unusual happenings during the trial and the Herald covers some of the highlights here. 

UPDATE: Jury found Carollo liable. Owes $60M in compensatory and punitive damages.

Go Heat.