Tag: Collusion

Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all seven criminal fraud counts

[ad_1]

A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal counts against him. The FTX founder faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison.

Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were all tied to the collapse late last year of FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda.

“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a briefing after the verdicts were read. “While the cryptocurrency industry might be new and the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, this kind of corruption is as old as time. This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement: “Sam Bankman-Fried thought that he was above the law. Today’s verdict proves he was wrong.”

“This case should send a clear message to anyone who tries to hide their crimes behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand: the Justice Department will hold you accountable.”

The federal trial, which began in early October, pitted the testimony of Bankman-Fried’s former close friends and top lieutenants against the sworn statements of their former boss and ex-roommate. The jury returned a swift verdict after receiving the case at around 3:15 p.m. ET on Thursday and breaking for dinner at around 6 p.m. ET.

At 7:37 p.m. ET, the attorneys began to rush back into the courtroom, and the clerk said, “the jury has reached a verdict.” A minute later, the jury was back in the room.

Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried arrive for the trial of their son, former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at Federal Court in New York City, U.S., October 26, 2023.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Bankman-Fried’s parents were visibly nervous entering the courtroom. They sat in the second pew, and took turns putting their arms around each other. When the defendant, wearing a purple tie and a black suit, returned to the table with his attorneys, he leaned back in his chair. He didn’t flinch and stared straight ahead.

From the top floor of the lower Manhattan courthouse, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the trial, instructed Bankman-fried to stand and face the jury box as the verdicts were read. The only two people standing were the forewoman and the defendant.

By 7:47 p.m. ET, all counts had been read. Bankman-Fried remained stoic. He didn’t cry.

Immediately after the guilty verdicts, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Mark Cohen, asked jurors to be polled. They went juror by juror, and each was asked if their verdict was read properly. Each said yes.

Kaplan thanked the jurors for their service, and they were escorted out.

Kaplan then asked about the second trial Bankman-Fried is facing on March 11. The government has until Feb. 1 to let the court know if it plans to still proceed. The sentencing date is March 28 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

At around 8:02 p.m. ET, Bankman-Fried began to walk to a side room. His parents were standing at the front of the center aisle, waiting for their son.

Following the verdict, Cohen said in a statement that Bankman-Fried “maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”

Friends turned on him

The monthlong trial was highlighted by testimony from the government’s key witnesses, including Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and the former head of Alameda, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who was Bankman-Fried’s childhood friend from math camp. Both pleaded guilty in December to multiple charges and cooperated as witnesses for the prosecution.

Most of the defense’s case was built on the testimony of Bankman-Fried himself, who told the court that he didn’t commit fraud or steal customer money, but just made some business mistakes.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is questioned by defense lawyer Mark Cohen during his fraud trial over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at federal court in New York City, U.S., October 31, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

The central question for jurors to consider was whether Bankman-Fried acted with criminal intent in taking customer funds from FTX and using that money to pay for real estate, venture investments, corporate sponsorships, political donations and to cover losses at Alameda after crypto prices plunged last year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told the court in his closing argument Wednesday, there was “no serious dispute” that $10 billion in customer money that was sitting in FTX’s crypto exchange went missing. The issue, he said, is whether Bankman-Fried knew that taking the money was wrong.

“The defendant schemed and lied to get money, which he spent,” Roos said.

Bankman-Fried now awaits sentencing. His case has been compared with that of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of medical device company Theranos, which ceased operations in 2018.

Holmes, 39, was convicted in early 2022 on four counts of defrauding investors in Theranos after testifying in her own defense. She was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, and began serving her punishment in May at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas.

— CNBC’s Dawn Giel contributed to this report.

WATCH: SBF case is warning to every fraudster

[ad_2]

Source link

November 3, 2023
Three charged with sending Russia over $7 million in electronics to aid war on Ukraine

[ad_1]

Federal prosecutors allege that these dozens of boxes, recovered from defendant Nasriddinov’s residence in Brooklyn, contained thousands of semiconductors and other electronic components.

Source: DOJ

Three people were arrested in New York City on Tuesday on charges of illegally smuggling millions of dollars’ worth of electronics to Russia in order to aid the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused Nikolay Goltsev, Salimdzhon Nasriddinov and Kristina Puzyreva of evading sanctions in order to send Russia equipment used in their precision-guided missile systems.

Some of that equipment “has been used on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a press release.

The defendants allegedly dispatched hundreds of shipments of restricted items, worth nearly $7.2 million, to Russia over the course of a year.

Nasriddinov, 52, a dual national of Russia and Tajikistan, was arrested in Brooklyn, where he resides. Goltsev, 37, and 32-year-old Puzyreva, dual Russian-Canadian nationals who live in Montreal, were arrested in Manhattan.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to detain the defendants pending trial, arguing that they each pose a “serious flight risk.”

The complaint alleges that the defendants used two corporate entities to source and purchase dual-use electronics from U.S. manufacturers and distributors, and then secretly export them to Russia.

Some of the electronic components and integrated circuits were designated as being “of the highest concern due to their critical role in the production of advanced Russian precision-guided weapons systems,” according to the complaint.

Goltsev used aliases, including “Nick Stevens,” as part of his efforts to procure items from the U.S. entities, prosecutors said. Those items were sent to various locations in Brooklyn, then shipped to intermediary corporations in countries including Turkey, Hong Kong, India, China and the United Arab Emirates, before finally being re-routed to Russia, according to the prosecutors.

The defendants knew that the electronics had military application, the prosecutors alleged, citing messages sent between Goltsev and Nasriddinov.

The 23-page document lists four unnamed co-conspirators, who are described as Russian nationals living in Russia.

Some of the same types of components were found in Russian weapons platforms and signals intelligence equipment that were seized in Ukraine, prosecutors alleged.

They specified that that equipment includes the Torn-MDM radio reconnaissance complex, the RB-301B “Borisoglebsk-2” electronic warfare complex, the Vitebsk L370 airborne counter missile system, Ka-52 helicopters, the Izdeliye 305E light multi-purpose guided missile, Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles and T-72B3 battle tanks.

“With these defendants in U.S. custody, we have disrupted a sophisticated procurement network allegedly used to procure critical technologies for the Russian military’s advanced weapons systems,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The U.S. government ramped up its export controls on Russia, restricting its access to tech and other key items, in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 31, 2023
Here’s what Sam Bankman Fried said in his first full day on the stand in his $8 billion fraud trial

[ad_1]

Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, walks outside the Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. March 30, 2023.

Amanda Perobelli | Reuters

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told jurors in his criminal trial on Friday that he didn’t commit fraud, and that he thought the crypto exchange’s outside expenditures, like paying for the naming rights at a sports arena, came out of company profits.

On Friday morning, defense attorney Mark Cohen asked Bankman-Fried if he defrauded anyone.

“No, I did not,” Bankman-Fried responded.

Cohen followed by asking if he took customer funds, to which Bankman-Fried said “no.”

Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, that could land him in prison for life if he’s convicted. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Prior to the defendant’s appearance on the stand, the four-week trial was highlighted by the testimony of multiple members of FTX’s top leadership team as well as the people who ran sister hedge fund Alameda Research. They all singled out Bankman-Fried as the mastermind of a scheme to use FTX customer money to fund everything from venture investments and a high-priced condo in the Bahamas to covering Alameda’s crypto losses.

Courtroom sketch showing Sam Bankman Fried questioned by his attorney Mark Cohen. Judge Lewis Kaplan on the bench

Artist: Elizabeth Williams

Prosecutors walked former leaders of Bankman-Fried’s businesses through specific actions taken by their boss that resulted in clients losing billions of dollars last year. Several of the witnesses, including Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda, have pleaded guilty to multiple charges and are cooperating with the government.

‘Significant oversights’

On Friday, Bankman-Fried acknowledged that one of his biggest mistakes was not having a risk management team. That led to “significant oversights,” he said.

At the start of his testimony, Cohen walked Bankman-Fried through his background and how he got into crypto. The defendant said he studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in 2014. He then worked as a trader on the international desk at Jane Street for over three years, managing tens of billions of dollars a day in trading. That’s where he learned the fundamentals of things like arbitrage trading.

In the fall of 2017, Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research.

“This was when crypto was starting to become publicly visible for the first time,” Bankman-Fried testified.

He said people were excited about it, watching bitcoin, which had jumped from $1,000 to $10,000 in a two-month period. Banks and brokers weren’t involved yet and it seemed like there would probably be big demand for an arbitrage provider, he said.

“I had absolutely no idea” how cryptocurrencies worked, Bankman-Fried said. “I just knew they were things you could trade.”

The first Alameda office was in an Airbnb in Berkeley, California, he said. It was listed as a two bedroom but they used the couch in the living room as a third bed and also repurposed the attic as a fourth bedroom.

He started FTX in 2019. Trading volume grew substantially on FTX from a few million dollars a day to tens of millions of dollars that year to hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020. By 2022, that number was up to $10 billion to $15 billion per day in trading volume, he said.

Bankman-Fried said Alameda was permitted to borrow from FTX, but his understanding was that the money was coming from margin trades, collateral from other margin trades or assets earning interest on the platform.

At FTX, there were no general restrictions on what could be done with funds that were borrowed as long as the company believed assets were greater than liabilities, Bankman-Fried testified.

In 2020, a routine liquidation gone wrong led to some of the special borrowing permissions at Alameda, he said. The risk engine was sagging under the weight of growth. A liquidation that should have been in the thousands of dollars was in the trillions of dollars. Alameda was suddenly underwater because of closing the position.

The incident exposed a larger concern, that the potential of an erroneous liquidation of Alameda could be disastrous for users.

Bankman-Fried said he talked to FTX’s engineering director Nishad Singh and co-founder Gary Wang, both of whom testified earlier on behalf of the prosecution. He suggested creating an alert, which would prompt the user to deposit more collateral, or a delay, Bankman-Fried said. In response to this feedback, Singh and Wang told Bankman-Fried they had implemented a feature like that, he said, adding that he later learned it was the “allow negative” feature.

Bankman-Fried testified that he wasn’t aware of the amount Alameda was borrowing or its theoretical max. As long as Alameda’s net asset value was positive and the scale of borrowing was reasonable, increasing its line of credit from so that Alameda could keep filling orders was fine, he said. Earlier testimony from Singh and Wang suggested the line of credit was raised to $65 billion, a number Bankman-Fried said he was not aware of.

Tough sell

Convincing the jury will be a tall order for Bankman-Fried after a mountain of damning evidence was presented by the government.

Prosecutors entered corroborating materials, including encrypted Signal messages and other internal documents that appear to show Bankman-Fried orchestrating the spending of FTX customer money.

The defense’s case, which consists of Bankman-Fried’s testimony along with that of two witnesses who took the stand Thursday morning, hinges largely on whether the jury believes the defendant didn’t intend to commit fraud.

The logo of FTX is seen on a flag at the entrance of the FTX Arena in Miami, Florida, November 12, 2022.

Marco Bello | Reuters

In Friday afternoon testimony, Bankman-Fried was asked about FTX’s marketing and promotions.

He said there were 15 people on the marketing team, and noted that he got more involved with it as time progressed. In particular, he discussed the naming rights in 2021 for the basketball arena in Miami, which was to be a 19-year deal for $135 million.

Bankman-Fried said the sponsorship of FTX Arena would deliver returns for the company and create wide brand awareness because even he, as an “average level sports fan,” could name dozens of stadiums. He said the investment would be about $10 million a year, or 1% of revenue. The company had been deciding among a few different stadiums, including the homes to the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, Bankman-Fried said.

A crucial part of his testimony came when Bankman-Fried said he thought the stadium deal funding was coming from revenue from the exchange and returns from venture investments, as opposed to customer money.

Similarly, Bankman-Fried testified that he believed the lavish Bahamas properties were being paid for with FTX operating cash that came from revenue and venture investments. He said having available property to rent was a necessary incentive if the company wanted to poach developers from Facebook and Google.

As for the venture investments, Bankman-Fried said he thought that money was coming from Alameda’s operating profits and third-party lending desks. Alameda’s venture arm was renamed Clifton Bay Investments, which Bankman-Fried said was a first step in building a dedicated venture brand.

When asked about loans he took from the business, Bankman-Fried said they were to pay for venture investments and political donations. He said that, as the primary owner of Alameda, he thought he had a few billion dollars in arbitrage profit from the past few years and there was no reason he couldn’t borrow from it. He said the loans, except for the most recent one prior to the firm’s bankruptcy filing, were all documented through promissory notes.

Bankman-Fried said he never directed Singh or former FTX executive Ryan Salame to make political donations. Salame pleaded guilty in September to federal campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes, admitting that from fall 2021 to November 2022, he steered tens of millions of dollars of political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans in his own name when the money actually came from Alameda.

Bankman-Fried, who allegedly used FTX customer funds to help finance over $100 million in political giving during the 2022 midterms, testified that he talked to politicians about pandemic prevention and crypto regulation. He said he had a vested interested in crypto policy even though FTX’s U.S. operation was relatively small, because the company was seeking to offer crypto futures products in the U.S.

Bankman-Fried then discussed his public persona. He said he hadn’t intended to be the public face of the company because he’s “naturally introverted.” But a few interviews went well, and it snowballed from there. He said he was the only person at the company that the press sought.

He wore T-shirts and shorts because they were comfortable and said he let his hair grow out because he was busy and lazy.

Bankman-Fried was photographed at the 2022 Super Bowl in Los Angeles with Katy Perry. He told the jury, which was previously presented with the photo by the prosecution, that he thought it was natural to go to the game because he was in town for meetings and the company had a commercial running.

“I thought maybe it would be interesting,” he said.

Shifting blame to his ex-girlfriend

The afternoon testimony largely focused on Bankman-Fried’s repeated and unsuccessful request to Ellison that she hedge Alameda’s risk. Bankman-Fried said in late 2021, he had talked to Ellison about putting on trades to protect against the risk of market moves since Alameda had been leveraged long, meaning they would lose money if the market went down.

Ellison said she would look into it, which Bankman-Fried said he “interpreted” as her being “far less enthusiastic about it.” Over the course of 2022, Bankman-Fried said every two months he would check in to see if Alameda had hedged, and each time he was told not yet, but Ellison would say she was planning to do so in the near future.

Specifically, Bankman-Fried said he had talked with Ellison and Ramnik Arora, who had been the head of product at FTX, about putting a $2 billion hedge on the company’s investment in Genesis Digital Assets, a bitcoin miner. He told the jury that the hedge was never made.

There was also more detail on how Bankman-Fried was told about FTX’s $8 billion liability. According to the defendant, in October 2022, developers built a Google database that included financial data. That’s where Bankman-Fried noticed the negative $8 billion balance, which he said he was “very surprised” to see.

Cohen then brought the jury through the summer months of 2022, a time when Alameda’s lenders, specifically Genesis, BlockFi, Celsius and Voyager, all had direct conversations with Bankman-Fried about the need for emergency capital. In the end, only BlockFi and Voyager received funds from Alameda and Bankman-Fried.

In late 2021 and early 2022, Bankman-Fried said he wanted FTX revenue to be above $1 billion because it was a round number. He asked company executives if there were ways to reach that mark. Singh said he’d dealt with it by staking the company’s investment in crypto token Serum, a way of putting the coins to work. That had added another $50 million in revenue. Bankman-Fried testified that he was “a little surprised” they found that additional money, but it got him to $1 billion.

— CNBC’s Dawn Giel contributed to this report

WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried testifying in his criminal case

[ad_2]

Source link

October 27, 2023
Trump may seek to pause $250 million New York business fraud trial

[ad_1]

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom for the third day of his civil fraud trial in New York, Oct. 4, 2023.

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

Lawyers for Donald Trump may ask a New York appeals court to pause his ongoing $250 million business fraud trial and stay a judge’s order that could gut the former president’s company, lawyers said Thursday afternoon.

Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron that as of Thursday he plans to seek a stay of the trial Engoron is presiding over, as well as a stay of the judge’s order related to dissolving Trump corporate entities.

But Kise said he did not want to reveal the scope of the appeal planned for Friday morning, upsetting a lawyer from the New York Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s lawyer, Andrew Amer, told Engoron that his office is entitled to 24-hour advance notice of such an appeal.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

Attorney General Letitia James in a lawsuit alleges that Trump, his adult sons, the Trump Organization, and company executives misstated the values of real estate properties to get better loan terms and tax advantages, grossly exaggerating Trump’s net worth as disclosed on financial statements.

The trial is dealing with six remaining claims in that suit.

Engoron last month issued a summary judgment finding that James had proven her top claim, that the defendants engaged in business fraud.

As part of that finding, which Trump’s lawyers are expected to ask an appeals court to block Friday, Engoron canceled business certificates held by the defendants.

Engoron in that ruling also ordered the appointment of an independent receiver to manage the dissolution of the canceled business entities.

On Thursday, the judge issued a series of orders to the defendants which appeared to begin clearing the way for a sell-off of the businesses.

Engoron also ordered the defendants to give an independent monitor for the Trump Organization notice of “the creation of a new entity to hold or acquire the assets” of the to-be-dissolved businesses.

Trump was present in court for the first 2½ days of the trial, which began Monday.

He left in the middle of proceedings Wednesday, after complaining that he was being taken away from his Republican presidential primary campaign because he was “stuck” in court.

Trump was not required to attend the trial on those days. But he may have to testify at some point in the trial, which is set to last until late December.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 5, 2023
‘The Donald Trump show is over,’ AG says after ex-president leaves New York fraud trial

[ad_1]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in the courtroom with his lawyers for his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on Oct. 3, 2023.

Seth Wenig | Getty Images

New York Attorney General Letitia James declared that “the Donald Trump show is over” after the former president left his $250 million civil business fraud trial in the middle of proceedings Wednesday.

“I will not be bullied,” James said at Manhattan Supreme Court. She accused Trump engaging in a “political stunt,” and a “fundraising stop” by attending the trial for two-and-a-half days.

James, who is Black, also condemned Trump for making “comments that unfortunately fomented violence, or comments that I would describe as race baiting.”

Trump earlier Wednesday called James a “political animal.”

He also claimed her lawsuit against him was designed to hurt his chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.

“Mr. Trump’s comments were offensive. They were baseless,” James told reporters after Trump had left the building. “They were void of any facts and or any evidence.”

“This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud,” James said, “and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law.”

“So Mr. Trump is no longer here,” James said. “The Donald Trump show is over. This was nothing more than a political stunt.”

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 GOP nomination, flew out of New York after leaving court, where he griped he was “stuck here.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James arrives at a Manhattan courthouse trial in a civil fraud case brought by her against Former U.S. President Donald Trump, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in New York City, U.S., October 4, 2023.

Mike Segar | Reuters

“I’d rather be right now in Iowa, I’d rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places, but I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general,” the Queens native said, before hopping into his motorcade.

Trump was not required to attend the trial, which began Monday.

But he told reporters he showed up for three days of it to show “how corrupt it is.”

“Our whole system is corrupt,” said Trump, who claimed the judge in the case is “run by the Democrats” and “already knows what he’s going to do.”

Trump’s son Eric remained in the courtroom until the trial adjourned Wednesday afternoon. Both Eric and his brother Donald Trump Jr., who jointly run the Trump Organization, are co-defendants in the lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Trump was slapped with a limited gag order for criticizing the judge’s law clerk.

The trial resumed Wednesday morning with the continuation of cross-examination of Trump’s former accountant Donald Bender.

Trump’s attorneys grilled Bender about his involvement in preparing financial statements for the Trump Organization.

Bender previously testified that he compiled the statements using information provided by Trump and his company.

Those statements are at the heart of James’ lawsuit.

The suit accuses Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the Trump Organization and top executives of misstating the true values of real estate properties in order to obtain better loan and insurance terms, and tax advantages.

In addition to seeking $250 million in damages, James wants the court to permanently bar Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from serving as officers of any New York business.

Bender, a former partner at Mazars USA, is the first witness called in the case, which is expected to last until late December.

Also Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal of a pre-trial ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron that found Trump and other defendants liable for fraud, the top claim in the lawsuit. Engoron in that ruling yanked the business licenses of various Trump corporate entities and ordered their dissolution.

The trial is dealing with the six remaining claims in the suit: falsifying business records, conspiracy to falsify business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Justice Arthur Engoron speaks during the trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump for Trump’s civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on October 03, 2023 in New York City.

Shannon Stapleton | Getty Images

Before the trial resumed Wednesday, Trump outside the courtroom again called the case a “witch hunt” and a “disgrace,” and claimed James sued solely for political purposes.

Trump also called James, who is Black, a “political animal.”

James is a Democrat. Trump is currently the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

But Trump did not make any comment about Engoron’s law clerk, whom he had attacked Tuesday in statements to reporters and in a social media post. The clerk sits with Engoron during the trial and sometimes speaks with lawyers during the proceedings.

Trump’s post on Truth Social about her included her full name and a photo from her Instagram account of her posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.

Trump accused the clerk of being “Schumer’s girlfriend” and “running this case against me.”

An angry Engoron later Tuesday called the attack on his staffer unacceptable.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

The judge ordered Trump to delete the Truth Social, and barred Trump and others in the case from talking about his aides publicly.

“Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member of my staff,” Engoron said.

The trial is being conducted without a jury, meaning Engoron alone will deliver verdicts.

Trump on Wednesday reiterated claims that the New York state statute at issue in the case strips him of his right to a jury trial.

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said Trump could have asked for a jury trial, but that he likely would have been denied that request.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 4, 2023
Trump arrives at New York court for $250 million fraud trial

[ad_1]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, U.S., October 2, 2023.

Seth Wenig | Reuters

The $250 million civil fraud trial that could see former President Donald Trump permanently banned from doing business in New York began Monday.

The trial comes a year after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued him, his company, three of his adult children, and top Trump Organization officials.

James alleged the defendants misstated the values of real estate properties by billions of dollars in business records to obtain better loan and insurance terms, and tax benefits.

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, arrived at Manhattan Supreme Court for the start of the trial.

Before it began, Trump claimed the case was a “witch hunt” aimed at undermining his presidential campaign.

“Everything was perfect. There was no crime. The crime is against me,” Trump told reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

James notched a massive win against Trump and other defendants last week when Judge Arthur Engoron ruled they were liable for the fraud claims. Engoron in that ruling canceled the defendants’ New York business certificates and ordered an independent receiver to oversee their dissolution.

Engoron, not a jury, will decide whether the defendants are liable for the other six claims at the trial, which is expected to conclude in late December.

“The people have already proven” that Trump’s financial statements from 2011 to 2021 were “false and misleading,” said Kevin Wallace, a prosecutor from the attorney general’s office, in his opening statement to the judge.

Wallace played video clips of depositions from key witnesses, including Trump, former Trump Org Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

In one clip, Cohen said that he and Weisselberg would inflate the value of real estate assets in order to reach the figure that Trump wanted in order to help him climb higher on Forbes’ wealth rankings.

Wallace argued while a person may exaggerate their wealth for Forbes Magazine or television audiences, they “cannot do it while conducting business in the State of New York.”

But defense attorney Christopher Kise said the evidence will show that “there was no intent to defraud.”

The loans that Trump’s business secured were “successful” and “profitable,” Kise said.

“The banks made well over a hundred million dollars,” Kise added.

A box is carried as the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump is set to begin at New York State Supreme Court on October 02, 2023 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

James, who is also in court, in a statement said, “For years, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth to enrich himself and cheat the system.”

“We won the foundation of our case last week and proved that his purported net worth has long been rooted in incredible fraud,” James said. “No matter how rich or powerful you are, there are not two sets of laws for people in this country. The rule of law must apply equally to everyone, and it is my responsibility to make sure that it does.”

Ivanka Trump was removed from the case in June, after an appeals court ruled that the claims against her were barred by the statute of limitations. But two of Trump’s other children, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who took over the family business after their father became president in 2016, remain as defendants.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 2, 2023
First co-defendant in Trump Georgia election case pleads guilty

[ad_1]

Republican poll watcher Scott Hall is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, after a grand jury brought back indictments against former U.S. President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies in their attempt to overturn the state’s 2020 election results in Atlanta, Georgia, August 22, 2023.

Fulton County Sheriff’s Office | via Reuters

Scott Hall, one of the 18 co-defendants of former President Donald Trump in his Georgia election interference case, pleaded guilty Friday in Atlanta to five misdemeanor conspiracy charges.

Hall is the first person charged with Trump to plead guilty in the case, which alleges a widespread racketeering conspiracy to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral loss to President Joe Biden.

At a hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, Hall confirmed to Judge Scott McAfee that his plea deal requires him to testify in future proceedings in the case, including trials of his co-defendants, including Trump.

The 59-year-old bail bondsman will serve five years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine, and perform 200 hours of community service as part of that deal.

McAfee also ordered Hall to write a letter of apology to the state of Georgia for his crimes and to have no involvement in the administration of elections.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

Hall was accused in the indictment issued last month of willfully tampering with electronic voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, and of working with several other co-defendants, including the pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, in that effort.

He originally was charged with seven criminal counts.

But that was reduced Friday to the five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of an election that he pleaded guilty to.

A spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting the Trump defendants, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Hall’s plea.

The guilty pleas came as a federal court judge in Georgia denied efforts by several co-defendants in the case, Jeffrey Clark, Cathy Latham, David Shafer and Shawn Still to remove their cases from Fulton County court to federal court.

Trump’s attorneys previously indicated they planned to seek to have his trial moved to federal court.

But in a surprise court filing Thursday, Trump’s lawyers told Judge McAfee that they would not do so.

“This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this honorable court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial, and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case,” Trump’s lawyer Steven Sadow told McAfee in that filing.

Trump’s decision not to see a federal trial in the case could reflect the recent lack of success his White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, had in requesting a transfer of his trial there in the same case.

Meadows is appealing a federal district judge’s denial of his transfer bid.

Powell and another co-defendant, Kenneth Chesebro, are set to begin their trial on Oct. 23. Both of those defendants, who are attorneys, had requested speedy trials for their cases.

Judge Scott McAfee on Friday denied a motion by Chesebro to dismiss the charges against him.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 29, 2023
Trump and company liable for fraud in New York lawsuit, judge rules

[ad_1]

A judge on Tuesday ruled that Donald Trump and his company are liable for fraud by misstating the true values of multiple real estate properties for years and thus grossly overstating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars.

Judge Arthur Engoron in his bombshell decision also canceled the New York business certificates of Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other defendants, including two of his sons, in a lawsuit by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The judge said he would appoint an independent receiver to manage the dissolution of the corporate entities whose business certificates he canceled.

It is not clear whether Engoron’s decision means the Trump Organization and related entities will have to completely cease doing business in New York, or whether the companies can be legally reconstituted later.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment on that question.

But Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise, who called the decision “outrageous,” said it “seeks to nationalize one of the most successful corporate empires in the United States and seize control of private property all while acknowledging there is zero evidence of any default, breach, late payment or any complaint of harm.”

“While the full impact of the decision remains unclear, what is clear is that President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice,” Kise said.

Engoron’s ruling, which also dismissed Trump’s request to dismiss the case, did not settle six other claims in dispute in the case whose defendants included him, the company and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, company executive Jeff McConney.

Those issues remaining claims will be addressed at a nonjury trial due to begin Monday.

James is seeking $250 million in damages in the case and wants Trump and his two adult sons barred from doing business in the state.

Engoron, in granting partial summary judgment to James on the fraud claim, found that Trump made false and misleading valuations for multiple real estate assets in statements to insurers and banks for years as he sought more favorable terms on insurance coverage and loans.

Because of those misstatements, Trump also inflated his true net worth in annual financial statements by billions of dollars, according to the decision.

“In defendants’ world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party’s lies,” Engoron wrote.

“That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”

Engoron also ordered sanctions of $7,500 for five attorneys who represented the Trump defendants for making frivolous and previously rejected arguments in court filings. Kise is among those fined by the judge.

“Today, a judge ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in years of financial fraud,” James wrote in a post on the X social media site.

“We look forward to presenting the rest of our case at trial,” James added.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, separately faces a total of 91 felony charges in four criminal cases. Two of those cases relate to efforts to reverse his re-election defeat in 2020. Another case involves his retention of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, a property that is mentioned in Engoron’s ruling Tuesday.

In the fourth criminal case, Trump is charged with falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Engoron in his ruling wrote that James’ office in its civil fraud suit “has prevailed on liability on its first cause of action … as against all defendants.”

The judge added that if liability for fraud is established under New York law, that statute allows the attorney general to obtain an order enjoining defendants from continuing to do business or “any fraudulent or illegal acts.”

Even after Engoron appointed an independent financial monitor for the Trump Organization last year, “defendants have continued to disseminate false and misleading information while conducting business,” the judge wrote.

“This ongoing flouting of this Court’s prior order, combined with the persistent nature of the false [statements of financial condition] year after year, have demonstrated the necessity of canceling the [defendants’ business] certificates … as the statute provides,” the judge wrote.

Engoron’s 35-page ruling details how Trump fraudulently valued his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, once by more than 2,000%, Trump Park Avenue and 40 Wall Street in New York City, his Seven Springs property in Westchester County, New York, and his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland.

“Time and time again, the Court is not comparing one appraisal to another; it is comparing an independent professional appraisal to a pie-in-the-sky dream of concocted potential,” Engoron wrote.

After noting that Trump submitted statements falsely claiming that the Trump Tower apartment in which he resided for decades was nearly three times its actual size, and was worth a whopping $327 million, the judge wrote, “a discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud.”

“The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business,” Engoron wrote.

“Defendants respond that: the documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as ‘objective’ value; and that, essentially, the Court should not believe its own lying eyes,” the judge noted.

Kise, the Trump attorney, said Engoron’s “outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law.’

“The Court ignored fully the Appellate Division mandate and basic legal, accounting and business principles,” Kise said. “Without even conducting a trial, the Court substituted its own judgment for that of nationally recognized experts from the NYU Stern School of Business and beyond. More importantly, the Court disregarded the viewpoint of those actually involved in the loan transactions who testified there was nothing misleading, there was no fraud, and the transactions were all highly profitable.”

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, in a statement said, “It’s important to remember that the Trump Organization is an American success story and the fact that a judge without trial would say there is no question of fact and issue a decision like this in summary judgement is concerning.”

Habba who was among the attorneys sanctioned by Engoron.

Trump responded to Engoron’s ruling by reposting a statement on social media attacking James and the judge, while doubling down on his claims of having a much higher net worth than what was displayed on the financial statements at the center of the fraud case.

“It is very unfair, and I call for help from the highest Courts in New York State, or the Federal System, to intercede,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.

In a tweet Tuesday, Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization with Donald Trump Jr., wrote, “In an attempt to destroy my father and kick him out of New York, a Judge just ruled that Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach Florida, is only worth approximate ‘$18 Million dollars’ “

“Mar-a-Lago is speculated to be worth [well] over a billion dollars making it arguably the most valuable residential property in the country. It is all so corrupt and coordinated,” Eric wrote.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 26, 2023
New Jersey Gov. Murphy, Assembly speaker call on Sen. Bob Menendez to resign

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, the state’s General Assembly speaker and the Democratic State Committee chairman all called on U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez to resign Friday after their fellow Democrat was indicted on federal bribery charges.

“The allegations in the indictment against Senator Menendez and four other defendants are deeply disturbing,” Murphy said about Menendez, the state’s senior senator.

“These are serious charges that implicate national security and the integrity of our criminal justice system,” said Murphy.

“The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said, “The charges laid out against Senator Menendez today go against everything we should believe as public servants.

“We are given the public’s trust, and once that trust is broken, we cannot continue,” Coughlin said, adding that Menendez must resign to “allow New Jersey, and America, to move forward.”

Democratic State Committee chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr. said Menendez should step down “in the interest of insuring that New Jerseyans continue to be granted the federal representation that they deserve.”

Jones also noted the upcoming state legislative elections in November, and said Menendez’s resignation would allow the Democratic party “to keep its focus” on state level races.

Two New Jersey Democrats in Congress, U.S. Reps. Andy Kim and Mikie Sherrill, also called on Menendez to resign.

Menendez responded to his critics late Friday. “Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades,” he said in a statement.

“This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along. It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” he added.

The statement hinted at how bitter the debate over the senator’s political future is likely to become.

Menendez, 69, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted on three criminal counts, along with three New Jersey businessmen who were charged with two of the counts.

The couple is accused of having taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes over at least four years, while the senator performed, in return, political favors for the three businessmen.

Prosecutors allege the favors included providing sensitive national security information to Egyptian officials.

Menendez insisted he and his wife had nothing wrong, and accused prosecutors in a statement of having “misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office.”

He did not address the specific charges other than to say the “facts are not as presented.”

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, in a statement said, “Bob Menendez has been a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey.”

Menendez was appointed to the Senate in 2005, but went on to win reelection on his own three times, and will face voters again in 2024. Democrats have a difficult Senate map next year, when they will be defending 23 of the 33 contested Senate seats.

In states that are dominated by just one political party, as New Jersey is by Democrats, Senate seats change hands far less than they do in swing states, where elections tend to be more competitive.

In New Jersey, for example, only four people have been elected to the U.S. Senate in the past 23 years, the last one being Sen. Cory Booker in 2013.

In the event that Menendez were to resign or to retire when his current term ends, the race to fill his Senate seat would likely draw a who’s who of the state’s elected Democrats. Some of the top names already being floated Friday were Kim and Sherrill.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin in a statement late Friday afternoon said, “The allegations are deeply disturbing to me and my Office, and we are already in the process of reviewing the concerns raised by the indictment.”

“As the now unsealed indictment makes clear, there are allegations that Menendez attempted to pressure a senior member of this Office under a prior administration,” Platkin said.

“The conduct alleged in the indictment occurred prior to my tenure as Attorney General, and involved a matter that was resolved prior to my time in office. My Office has cooperated fully with the Southern District of New York’s investigation. We will continue to do so. We are also engaged in our own independent internal inquiry into the allegations set forth in the indictment.”

[ad_2]

Source link

September 22, 2023
Sen. Menendez defiant after second corruption indictment: ‘Prosecutors did that the last time’

[ad_1]

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., walks through the Senate subway on his way to a vote in the Capitol on Thurssday, May 4, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Bill Clark | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Sen. Robert Menendez on Friday vowed to remain in the Senate while he fights federal charges of bribery and extortion announced earlier in the day. The indictment was the second time the New Jersey Democrat had been prosecuted for alleged corruption as a sitting senator.

As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez holds one of the most powerful gavels in Congress. But any committee chair “who is charged with a felony shall immediately step aside” under Democratic caucus rules.

Menendez planned to relinquish his committee chairmanship while he was prosecuted, NBC News reported. But not his seat in Congress.

“I remain focused on continuing this important work and will not be distracted by baseless allegations,” Menendez said in a statement.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

The senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, were indicted on three criminal counts each Friday after a multi-year federal investigation.

The couple is accused of having “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for Senator Menendez using his power and influence to protect and to enrich” three New Jersey business associates, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York, who brought the charges.

“Those bribes included cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job [for Nadine], a luxury vehicle, and other things of value,” the federal indictment alleges.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a press conference after announcing that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was indicted on corruption charges charges at the SDNY office on September 22, 2023 in New York City.

Alexi J. Rosenfeld | Getty Images

In response to the charges, Bob Menendez was defiant and accused prosecutors of having, “misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office” and “attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had.”

This counterargument, namely that what prosecutors claim are bribes in exchange for favors were actually just personal friendships and the typical work of a U.S. senator, was the same one Bob Menendez made the last time he was charged with corruption in 2015. In that case, it worked.

Menendez was charged with 14 counts alongside co-defendant Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist whom prosecutors accused of having bribed Bob Menendez with lavish gifts in exchange for using his Senate powers to advance Melgen’s business interests.

But the jury in the case was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial in 2017.

On Friday, Bob Menendez said prosecutors were running the same failed play a second time.

“The facts are not as presented,” in the indictment, he said. “Prosecutors did that the last time and look what a trial demonstrates.”

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 22, 2023
JPMorgan legal fees in Jeffrey Epstein sex traffic cases near $14 million, former exec reveals

[ad_1]

Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA in 1984.

Rick Friedman | Corbis News | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase has racked up nearly $14 million in legal fees defending itself against two lawsuits alleging it abetted the sex trafficking by its longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, according to lawyers for a former top executive who says he is being scapegoated by the huge bank.

Attorneys for former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley revealed the fee total in a filing late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Staley’s filing was later removed from public view on the court docket.

On Thursday, his lawyers filed a new version of the document that redacted the reference to the bank’s legal fees.

The filing challenges JPMorgan’s use of three financial experts to support its legal claims that Staley, a former friend of Epstein, should be responsible for paying the bank hundreds of millions of dollars to cover costs related to the lawsuits.

Staley’s lawyers did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

JP Morgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler declined to comment on the bank’s purported legal costs from the suit.

But in a statement to CNBC, Wexler noted, “Both plaintiffs have accused Jes of unspeakable acts that had nothing to do with his job or responsibilities at our firm.”

“Indeed, Jane Doe herself has directly accused him of horrific sexual misconduct. If these allegations are true, he must be held accountable,” said Wexler, using the pseudonym for the plaintiff in one of the suits.

JPMorgan was sued last year by “Doe” in a would-be class action case on behalf of herself and other young women who were trafficked by the late money manager Epstein.

The bank separately was sued by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had maintained a residence on a private island, where he sexually abused women.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

Both suits claim that the bank facilitated and profited Epstein’s trafficking of women when he was a customer from 1998 through 2013.

A lawyer for the Virgin Islands during a court hearing this month said that after Epstein killed himself in 2019, JPMorgan notified the Treasury Department of more than $1 billion in transactions related to “human trafficking” by Epstein dating back 16 years.

JPMorgan in July agreed to pay $290 million to victims of Epstein to settle the first lawsuit.

But the bank, which denies any wrongdoing is continuing to fight the suit by the Virgin Islands. That case is set to begin trial in late October.

Source: Court filings by attorneys for former JPMorgan executive Jes Staley

In March, JPMorgan sued Staley, its former chief of investment banking, alleging that he is legally responsible for “the entire amount” of any damages it incurs from both lawsuits. The bank also is seeking to claw back more than $80 million in compensation it paid Staley over the years.

Staley, 66, is opposing the bank’s claim. He also has denied an allegation Doe that he sexually assaulted her.

In their filing Wednesday, Staley’s lawyers wrote, “The one constant in these related cases has been JPMorgan’s attempt to pin the entirety of its problems with Jeffrey Epstein on its former executive Jes Staley.”

“Consistent with this theme, the three experts whom the bank has retained to support its third-party claims against Mr. Staley are focused on a single question: How much should Mr. Staley have to pay?” the filing said.

One expert, the accountant Edith Wong, has said JPMorgan’s $290 settlement was “reasonable,” the filing said.

And “Shelley Chapman, a retired bankruptcy judge, opines that JPMorgan’s $13.8 million in legal fees in the Jane Doe and USVI cases was ‘reasonable,’ ” according to Staley’s filing.

The third expert, an accountant named Carlyn Irwin, added up how much Staley earned at JPMorgan to assess how much might be clawed back by the bank if it wins its suit against Staley.

Staley’s lawyers wrote that “none of these experts’ opinions meets” a standard for the admissibility of expert opinions in federal court.

JPMorgan is being represented by attorneys from the law firm Wilmer Hale, including partner Felicia Ellsworth, who in 2020 co-edited an updated legal guide on human trafficking for attorneys “to represent victims and continue to make a difference.”

The firm’s website includes a statement on “modern slavery,” declaring, “We do not tolerate slavery, human trafficking or abusive or unfair treatment in any part of our business or in any part of our supply chain.”

Epstein, a former friend of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, killed himself in a New York jail at age 66 in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 21, 2023
Hunter Biden not asking for ‘special treatment’ in gun case court appearance, lawyer says

[ad_1]

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, arrives at federal court to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes, Wilmington, Delaware, July 26, 2023.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Hunter Biden will plead not guilty during his initial court appearance for three federal felony gun charges, his attorney said Tuesday as he denied that the son of President Joe Biden is asking for “special treatment” at his first court appearance in the case.

Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell revealed that planned plea as he asked a judge to hold the court appearance by video conference instead of in person at U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden, who lives in California, “will waive reading of the indictment, which is merely a few pages and could easily be read at a video conference,” Lowell wrote in a two-page letter to Judge Christopher Burke.

“Mr. Biden also will enter a plea of not guilty, and there is no reason why he cannot utter those two words by video conference,” Lowell wrote.

The court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Biden, 53, was indicted last week on three criminal counts related to his possession of a firearm while being an unlawful drug user.

Biden, who has been open about his substance abuse struggles, is charged with two counts of lying about his illegal drug use in connection with his purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver. The third count accuses him of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful drug user.

Lowell wrote in Tuesday’s letter that Biden was “not seeking any special treatment” by requesting the video conference for his first appearance in court on the charges.

Conducting the court hearing via video would “minimize an unnecessary burden on government resources and the disruption to the courthouse and downtown areas” in Wilmington from Secret Service agents accompanying Biden, Lowell argued.

“Without getting into specifics, numerous agents and vehicles are required for what would have to be a two-day event (for a proceeding that may be very short in duration),” the attorney wrote.

Federal prosecutors oppose Biden’s bid for a virtual appearance, the judge noted in a court order Monday that directed them to respond by Wednesday.

Lowell’s letter called prosecutors’ opposition “puzzling,” arguing that he was making a “common-sense request in seeking a video appearance.

Biden in late July pleaded not guilty to separate misdemeanor charges of failing to pay federal taxes on more than $1.5 million in annual income in 2017 and 2018.

He had intended to plead guilty to those charges, but his deal with prosecutors fell apart in court under scrutiny from a judge.

Biden also expected to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement on a gun-related crime at that time that could have seen him avoid being criminally charged with a firearm count if he complied with the deal’s conditions for two years.

After the plea deal on the tax charges collapsed, U.S. Attorney David Weiss said that the gun charge diversion agreement had been withdrawn.

But Lowell argues that the deal took effect and thus bars Biden from being charged with the gun crimes. Lowell also has said the charges are unconstitutional as a result of a 2022 Supreme Court ruling knocking down a New York gun law. All six conservatives on the Supreme Court, three of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump, voted in favor of that decision.

Lowell noted in a court filing earlier this month that Biden “has been following and will continue to follow the conditions of that Agreement.”

[ad_2]

Source link

September 19, 2023
Trump lashes out at bid for partial gag order in election case: ‘They want to silence me’

[ad_1]

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a South Dakota Republican party rally in Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S. September 8, 2023.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Friday attacked special counsel Jack Smith as a “deranged” prosecutor after his office sought restrictions on what the former president can say about his federal election interference case.

“He’s a deranged person,” he said of Smith, who led two federal investigations into Trump that have yielded criminal indictments.

Trump, who is the leading Republican candidate for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, claimed in a speech Friday night that Smith “wants to take away my rights under the First Amendment.”

He “wants to take away my right to speak freely and openly,” Trump said at the conference of a conservative Christian women’s organization in Washington, D.C.

Trump has previously attacked Smith in similar terms, but his latest broadside came hours after Smith asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan for a partial gag order in the D.C. election case.

Trump is charged with four criminal counts in that case, which alleges he perpetrated multiple conspiracies to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

Trump’s repeated attacks on the court, the prosecutors, prospective witnesses and the citizens of D.C. threaten to “undermine the integrity of these proceedings and prejudice the jury pool,” Smith wrote in a court filing.

The special counsel said he seeks “a narrow, well-defined restriction” on “certain prejudicial extrajudicial statements.”

Those would include statements about the “identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses,” as well as “statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating,” Smith wrote.

“They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you,” Trump told the D.C. crowd.

Smith’s motion cites numerous social media posts from Trump’s Truth Social account railing against Chutkan, the prosecutors and the city of D.C. itself. The filing also accused Trump of spreading “knowingly false accusations of misconduct” against a prosecutor in the special counsel’s office who is working on Trump’s other federal criminal case in Florida.

Trump claimed that the prosecutor went to the White House for “improper reasons” before Trump was indicted in that case, which centers on his retention of classified national defense records after he was no longer president.

But “as the defendant well knows,” the prosecutor “conducted a routine investigative interview of a career military official at that official’s duty station — the White House,” Smith wrote, calling Trump’s claim otherwise “an attempt to prejudice the public and the venire in advance of trial.”

The judge has yet to rule on Smith’s request, which if enacted could restrict Trump from disparaging the special counsel himself.

The speech was the first of two that Trump was scheduled to make in D.C. on Friday night. He began speaking at the first event, a gathering of the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, about 40 minutes past his scheduled 7:15 p.m. ET start time, likely delaying his second appearance at the annual summit of the Family Research Council, another religious conservative group.

The trip marked Trump’s first time back in the nation’s capital since early last month, when he appeared at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse to plead not guilty in the federal election case.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 15, 2023
Judge sets limits on Trump discussing classified info in Mar-a-Lago documents case

[ad_1]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during an event following his arraignment on classified document charges, at Trump National Golf Club, in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., June 13, 2023.

Amr Alfiky | Reuters

A federal judge on Wednesday issued an order setting limits on how former President Donald Trump can discuss classified information with his defense lawyers for the criminal case where he is charged with retaining classified documents after leaving the White House.

The order by Judge Aileen Cannon in U.S. District Court for southern Florida endorsed limitations sought by prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith over the objections of Trump.

But Cannon’s order was vague on the question of whether several concessions sought by Trump about how he could discuss classified information would eventually be granted in one form or the other.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 13, 2023
Former FTX exec Salame to forfeit $1.5 billion, pleads guilty to two criminal counts

[ad_1]

The FTX logo on a laptop screen.

Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty Thursday in New York federal court to campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes, and agreed to forfeit more than $1.5 billion.

Salame during his plea admitted that from fall 2021 to November 2022 he made political contributions in his own name when in actually the money came from Alameda Research, FTX’s hedge fund arm, in the amount of tens of millions of dollars.

Those contributions were supported by FTX’s then-CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Salame, who was released on a $1 million bond Thursday faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison for his crimes.

His sentencing was scheduled for March 6 by Judge Lewis Kaplan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

In addition to the monetary forfeiture, which will be paid to the U.S. government, the 30-year-old Salame will pay $5 million to debtors of FTX, the fallen cryptocurrency exchange.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

A source told CNBC that Salame is not cooperating with federal prosecutors, who are preparing for the criminal fraud trial of Bankman-Fried.

U.S. Attorney Damien Williams in a statement said, “Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside the law.”

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 7, 2023
Kicked off Facebook for two years, Trump now leans on Meta to help fund his presidential run

[ad_1]

Former U.S. President and Republican candidate Donald Trump makes a keynote speech at a Republican fundraising dinner in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. August 5, 2023.

Sam Wolfe | Reuters

Ever since Meta lifted its two-year ban on former President Donald Trump earlier this year, its Facebook and Instagram platforms have emerged as a key element of Trump’s presidential campaign fundraising plan, according to data from Meta’s archives and interviews with campaign strategists and Trump advisors.

Meta’s platforms offer Trump a vital resource that he can’t get from his own social media site, Truth Social, or via his countless mass emails: Access to millions of potential donors who may not be part of his traditional political base of supporters.

A big audience

Meta boasts 202 million daily active users on Facebook in the U.S. and Canada, according to its latest quarterly report. That’s a lot of eyeballs for a catchy political ad.

Starting in April, when it was announced Trump was first indicted in New York City, the number of overall impressions that Trump’s campaign ads rack up via his Facebook and Instagram accounts has skyrocketed, according to company data.

Trump’s Aug. 24 mugshot in Georgia, the first ever for a former president, has been a top draw in his recent posts.

The photo is used in at least 18 different versions of the same ad, spots that together racked up over 1 million impressions in the past week, according to the archive’s data.

The ads allow viewers to click a link to a fundraising page for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee that helps raise money for the Trump campaign and a leadership political action committee called Save America that’s spending millions of dollars on the former president’s legal fees.

The Trump camp has said that it’s raised over $9 million since he was booked in Georgia.

The Trump campaign did not say how much of the fundraising was through Facebook, but a Trump digital fundraiser told CNBC that the boost is likely due at least in part to the former president’s renewed efforts to raise money on the Meta-owned platforms. This person declined to be named in order to speak freely about internal campaign strategy.

Social media impressions are considered one of the most important metrics, especially for digital ad buyers, since it counts as “the number of times any content from your page or about your page entered a person’s screen,” according to Facebook.

Andrew Arenge, the director of operations for the University of Pennsylvania’s program on opinion research and election studies, told CNBC that higher impressions can be a key factor in helping bring in waves of campaign cash. Arenge’s team studies digital ad spending for both Democrats and Republicans.

“The value of running fundraising ads on digital versus say television, is that there is less friction between when an individual sees the fundraising appeal and when they can actually donate the money,” Arenge said in a message to CNBC over X, formerly known as Twitter. “So getting an ad in front of more eyeballs should provide more opportunity for the campaign to see more people click on the ad thus an opportunity to raise more money.”

Return on investment

Trump’s Facebook ad impressions have come with very little cost to his political operation, making it a cheap way for the former president to raise money for both his campaign and legal defense efforts.

Trump’s team only spent just over $77,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads the week he was charged in Georgia, according to data from digital ad tracker FWIW. The Meta ad archive shows that since early June, the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee spent more than $500,000 on digital Meta ads.

There is no public data showing how much the Meta ads have directly raised for the Trump campaign.

Political strategists say that Trump’s regaining access to Facebook is key to him raising money through online donations and acts as a lifeline to his 2024 campaign, regardless of his legal struggles.

“Online donations are the lifeblood of Trump’s campaign. Without access to those donors, he’d struggle to raise sufficient resources,” Alex Conant, a partner at Firehouse Strategies and former advisor to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently told CNBC when asked about Trump’s resurgence on the platform.

Trump’s campaign outraised all of his Republican primary opponents in the second quarter, according to Federal Election Commission records.

And while many of his rivals struggled to collect donations from 40,000 people in order to qualify for the first Republican debate, Trump has booked online contributions from 10 times that many individuals — at least 400,000 donors — from the launch of his campaign last year through June, according to NBC News.

Brad Parscale, who was Trump’s initial 2020 campaign manager and a key architect of the former president’s digital fundraising platform during their successful 2016 White House run, told CNBC that many of his company’s clients saw major digital fundraising success post the mugshot becoming public.

Parscale founded and is now a partner at digital fundraising firm Campaign Nucleus, which has recently counted the Trump campaign and Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC backing Trump’s run for president, as clients, according to FEC records.

“Since President Trump posted his mugshot, Campaign Nucleus has witnessed substantially increased activity, and many of our clients have seen an increase of up to 3x their normal fundraising,” Parscale said.

In the months since Trump regained access to his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, he has steadily ramped up his presence as his legal troubles mount.

Trump and 18 other co-conspirators were indicted in Georgia in August for alleged illegal efforts in overturning the 2020 election in the state. In New York, Trump faces criminal charges of falsifying business records tied to a scheme that directed hush money payments to two women.

Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump in two federal cases: One over his handling of classified government records after he left office and another case charging him with trying to overturn President Joe Biden‘s win in the 2020 election.

Christian Ferry, a veteran Republican strategist who used to work for the late Republican Sen. John McCain and Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that Trump’s Facebook ads represent a “desperate need” to raise money both for his campaign and legal fees.

“Trump is in desperate need of small-dollar donations to feed both his campaign and growing legal fees, so the more platforms the better,” Ferry said. “But impressions do not equal contributions and his polarizing nature ensures his posts get impressions from and detractors alike.”

Different Facebook, same Trump

The content of the ads has changed very little since his last presidential campaign in 2020 and the deadly, pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that initially prompted his ban from Meta’s sites.

While he was banned, Trump’s political team kept advertising on the platform through at least August 2021, as evidenced by the archived ads.

Facebook’s 2019 decision allowing political ads that have false information to remain on the platform without any repercussions has given Trump the ability to freely use falsehoods in his posts.

Some of the recent Trump ads falsely claim, for instance, that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, “lets violent murderers and TRUE criminals run wild in her city.” Willis is leading the case against Trump for his alleged illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that violent crime in Atlanta is down 20% compared with this time last year.

A representative for Trump’s campaign did not return a request for comment. A spokesman for Meta declined to comment on Monday when asked about the Trump advertisements on its platforms.

Trump’s return to Meta platforms will put his messaging in front of a changing landscape of users, as more kids are using Instagram, according to recent polling.

About 62% of teens from the ages of 13 and 17 are turning to use Instagram, according to Pew Research polling conducted in 2022. Facebook’s use by that age group, on the other hand, has dropped to 32% just last year, according to the poll.

Facebook’s age demographic has started to grow in recent years, according to research done by Insider Intelligence. The data firm expects by 2026 only about 28% of Facebook’s users will be between the ages 18 and 34 years old.

Cash-strapped political network

Trump’s return toward utilizing Meta as one of his digital fundraising platforms comes as his overall political network has, at times, struggled to raise enough funds to cover both his run for president and coinciding legal fees.

Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, raised more than $15 million and spent over $20 million on legal fees in the first half of the year, according to FEC records. Save America was down to only $3 million on hand going into the second half of the year.

The Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, which represents the bulk of the Meta ad spending for Trump, raised more than $53 million over that same time period and transferred over $31 million to affiliated committees, including Save America.

The joint fundraising committee went into the second half of the year with just over $5 million on hand.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 6, 2023
USVI says JPMorgan notified Treasury of more than $1 billion in suspicious Jeffrey Epstein transactions after he died: Report

[ad_1]

Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA in 1984.

Rick Friedman | Corbis News | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase notified the Treasury Department of more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions by Jeffrey Epstein dating back 16 years after the notorious sex predator killed himself in 2019, a lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands told a federal judge at a hearing Thursday, reports said.

“Epstein’s entire business with JPMorgan and JPMorgan’s entire business with Epstein was human trafficking,” Mimi Liu, an attorney for the Virgin Islands told Judge Jed Rakoff in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to The Daily Beast.

Liu cited the bank’s notification to the Treasury Department as she argued that Rakoff should issue a summary judgment against JPMorgan, which is being sued by the Virgin Islands government for allegedly facilitating sex trafficking by Epstein of young women when he was a customer of the bank from 1998 through 2013.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

The attorney, referring to a $9 million block of transfers to women and suspicious withdrawals from Epstein’s accounts at JPMorgan, said it related to “facilitating” more than 20,000 sexual acts, the Daily Beast reported, given Epstein’s habit of paying several hundred dollars for each sexual encounter.

“JPMorgan was a full-service bank for Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking,” Liu said at the hearing, Bloomberg reported.

“The only reason that JPMorgan after 16 years reported the $1 billion in suspicious transactions was because he was arrested and then he was dead,” said Liu, according to Bloomberg.

She has accused the bank of continuing to do business with Epstein for years despite repeated red flags internally and his 2008 guilty plea to a Florida sex crime, the report said.

Epstein, 66, killed himself in a New York jail in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges. In addition to a residence in Manhattan, Epstein owned a private island in the Virgin Islands, where he was accused of sexually abusing women.

A lawyer for JPMorgan, which denies wrongdoing in the case, pushed back against the Virgin Islands claims that it should be found liable for abetting Epstein’s abuse of women.

The Virgin Islands is seeking at least $190 million in damages in the case, which will go to trial on Oct. 23 if Rakoff does not grant summary judgment to either side.

The bank’s lawyer, Felicia Ellsworth, told Rakoff that the Virgin Islands had presented “not a scintilla” of evidence that JPMorgan violated laws about sex trafficking, according to The Daily Beast.

Ellsworth also argued that the Virgin Islands lacked the legal standing to sue the bank. JPMorgan has said the American territory can only sue to vindicate the rights of residents, and that there is no proof that any of Epstein’s victims were residents of the Virgin Islands.

“There is hotly disputed testimony and evidence,” Ellsworth told Rakoff, according to Bloomberg.

A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined to comment to CNBC about the Virgin Islands’ claims that the bank notified the Treasury Department of more than a $1 billion in suspicious transactions by Epstein.

JPMorgan in July agreed to pay $290 million in a settlement with victims of Epstein to resolve a similar lawsuit filed by one of the accusers in Manhattan federal court.

In June, Deutsche Bank, which had taken Epstein on as a client after he was forced out by JPMorgan in 2013, agreed to pay $75 million to Epstein’s victims to settle a third suit in the same court.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 1, 2023
Proud Boy Joe Biggs receives 17 years in Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy case

[ad_1]

WASHINGTON — Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy who the government says “served as an instigator and leader” during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison on Thursday.

It is among the longest sentences in Capitol riot cases. The record is the 18-year sentence given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, also convicted of seditious conspiracy, after prosecutors sought 25 years in federal prison in his case.

The government sought 33 years for Biggs, an Army veteran who sustained a head injury in Iraq and then served as a correspondent for the conspiracy website Infowars. Prosecutors argued that he was a “vocal leader and influential proponent of the group’s shift toward political violence” and used his “outsized public profile” and his military experience as he “led a revolt against the government in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly handed down Biggs’ sentence. He ruled earlier in Thursday’s hearing that Biggs’ tearing down of a fence that stood between police and rioters qualified him for a terrorism sentencing enhancement sought by prosecutors. Destroying the fence was a “deliberate, meaningful step” that contributed to the disruption of the electoral vote count occurring in the Capitol, Kelly said.

Biggs was convicted in May of seditious conspiracy; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to use force, intimidation or threats to prevent officers of the U.S. from discharging their duties; interference with law enforcement during civil disorder; and destruction of government property.

Biggs went to trial alongside Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. All five were convicted of felonies, and all but Pezzola were convicted of seditious conspiracy. The other Proud Boys will also be sentenced in the coming days: Rehl on Thursday afternoon, Pezzola and Nordean on Friday and Tarrio on Tuesday.

“January 6th will be a day in infamy,” Biggs said in a selfie video he recorded outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, said in closing arguments at trial that the Proud Boys’ “commander-in-chief” — former President Donald Trump — “sold them a lie,” referring to the lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Before his sentence was handed down Thursday said he was sorry and that he knew he “messed up” on Jan. 6.

“I apologize for my rhetoric,” Biggs said, adding he used it as a way to deal with what was going on with his family after his daughter was molested by a member of their family. “I’m so sorry. … I’m not a terrorist, I don’t have hate in my heart.”

Biggs grew emotional as he talked about his daughter, swearing on her life that he intended Jan. 6 to be his last event with the Proud Boys.

“I’m done with it. I’m sick and tired of left versus right,” Biggs said. The only group he wants to be affiliated with, he said, is his daughter’s PTA.

During the government’s presentation earlier in the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough stressed the seriousness of the Proud Boys’ actions on Jan. 6, calling them “among the most serious crimes that this court will consider.”

“There’s a reason why we will hold our collective breath and we approach future elections,” McCullough said. “We never gave it a second thought before Jan. 6.”

After Jan. 6 Americans will think twice about bringing children to polling places or attending events like an inauguration, which was what the Proud Boys intended, McCullough said.

Biggs’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, conceded that his client had committed some crimes on Jan. 6 but said those crimes had been “overstated.”

The actions of the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 were “quintessential pollical behavior” up until the riot turned violent, Pattis said, arguing that prosecutors had used his client’s political speech as evidence of criminal intent.

“We have to be careful to count speech for what it is and not what it might do,” he said.

“To treat these men as terrorists would be, in my view, the functional equivalent as the destruction of Waco,” Pattis said.

Despite applying the terrorism enhancement to Biggs, Kelly agreed that enhancement “overstates” Biggs’ conduct.

“It’s not my job to label you a terrorist and my sentence today won’t do that, no matter what it is,” he told Biggs before delivering the sentence.

“What happened on Jan. 6 harmed an important American custom that helps support the rule of law and the Constitution,” he said. “That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans. Notice I said had. We don’t have it anymore.”

— Daniel Barnes contributed.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 31, 2023
Trump fraud case: New York attorney general says ‘mountain’ of evidence justifies summary judgment

[ad_1]

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seen during a public safety announcement to prevent gun violence at City Hall, July 31, 2023.

Lev Radin | Pacific Press | Lightrocket | Getty Images

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a judge Wednesday for a partial summary judgment against Donald Trump in her $250 million lawsuit accusing the former president of widespread fraud, citing what she called a “mountain of undisputed evidence” of false and misleading financial statements.

In a court filing, James said evidence shows that if Trump’s net worth were correctly calculated, it would be between 17% and 39% lower than what he claimed each year over the course of a decade, “which translates to the enormous sum of $1 billion or more in all but one year.”

The allegedly false statements included years when Trump was in the White House, according to the filing.

James’ filing comes two months before the trial is set to begin in the civil suit against the former president; the Trump Organization; and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, at New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

James is suing the Trumps for allegedly defrauding banks, insurance companies and others with the use of false financial statements.

That trial would still take place to address other claims, even if Judge Arthur Engoron grants James’ request for partial summary judgment and finds Trump and the other defendants committed fraud under New York business law.

James, in her motion, says Engoron has to answer just “two simple and straightforward questions” to make that finding.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

One question is whether Trump’s annual statements of his financial condition were “false or misleading,” the attorney general wrote.

The other question, she wrote, is whether Trump and his co-defendants repeatedly used the financial statements to conduct business transactions.

“The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘yes’ based on the mountain of undisputed evidence cited” in the documentation submitted by James’ office, the motion said.

“Based on the undisputed evidence, no trial is required for the Court to determine that Defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values in the SFCs [financial statements] and then used those SFCs repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers,” James wrote.

“Notwithstanding Defendants’ horde of 13 experts, at the end of the day this is a documents case, and the documents leave no shred of doubt that Mr. Trump’s SFCs do not even remotely reflect the ‘estimated current value’ of his assets as they would trade between well-informed market participants,” the motion said.

CNBC has requested comment from a lawyer for Trump.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 30, 2023
Rudy Giuliani liable for defaming Georgia election workers, hit with sanctions by judge

[ad_1]

Rudy Giuliani speaks outside the Fulton County jail, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Atlanta.

Brynn Anderson | AP

A federal judge on Wednesday issued a default judgment against former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and ordered him to pay sanctions of nearly $133,000 in a defamation and civil conspiracy lawsuit by two Georgia election workers whom he claimed mishandled ballots in the 2020 presidential contest.

Judge Beryl Howell imposed the default judgment and monetary punishment because Giuliani repeatedly failed to comply with her orders to turn over electronically stored documents and other evidence sought by lawyers for the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

Howell blasted Giuliani for “willful … misconduct,” and “slippery” statements in failing to turn over the requested information as part of the legal process known as discovery.

“The bottom line is that Giuliani has refused to comply with his discovery obligations and thwarted plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss’s procedural rights to obtain any meaningful discovery in this case,” Howell wrote in a 57-page opinion that nodded at Giuliani’s recent criminal indictment with former President Donald Trump in Georgia.

The judge also ordered attorneys for Giuliani and the two women to propose three possible dates for trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on the question of how much money in compensatory and punitive damages he should be ordered to pay them as a result of the default judgment.

Ted Goodman, a political advisor to Giuliani, in a statement, said, “This 57 page opinion on discovery — which would usually be no more than two or three pages — is a prime example of the weaponization of the justice system, where the process is the punishment.”

“This decision should be reversed, as Mayor Giuliani is wrongly accused of not preserving electronic evidence that was seized and held by the FBI,” Goodman said.

Lawyers for Freeman and Moss, who are mother and daughter, released a statement from the women.

“What we went through after the 2020 election was a living nightmare. Rudy Giuliani helped unleash a wave of hatred and threats we never could have imagined. It cost us our sense of security and our freedom to go about our lives,” the woman said.

“Nothing can restore all we lost, but today’s ruling is yet another neutral finding that has confirmed what we have known all along: that there was never any truth to any of the accusations about us and that we did nothing wrong,” the woman said. ” We were smeared for purely political reasons, and the people responsible can and should be held accountable.”

“The fight to rebuild our reputations and to repair the damage to our lives is not over. But today we’re one step closer, and for that we are grateful.”

Freeman last year told a select House committee, “I’ve lost my name and I’ve lost my reputation” as the result of false claims Giuliani made about her handling of voters’ ballots while he was representing Trump.

Trump himself had repeatedly mentioned Freeman by name in a January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president pressured the official to “find” Trump enough votes to overturn his electoral loss in the state.

“Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?” Freeman asked during her testimony.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

Giuliani was indicted two weeks ago with Trump and 17 co-defendants by a grand jury in Atlanta on charges related to an alleged conspiracy to illegally overturn Trump’s loss in 2020 to President Joe Biden in Georgia.

That indictment details an effort by Trump, Giuliani and others to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory in Georgia, an effort that included making false claims about the work of Freeman and Moss.

Among other things, Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, had said at a Georgia Senate hearing that Freeman and Moss had passed each other USB flash drives like “vials of heroin or cocaine” as part of a scheme to defraud Trump of an election win.

Moss later told Congress that the items were actually candy.

The women had sued Giuliani in 2021 with claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.

Giuliani in a court filing last month conceded, for the purposes of the lawsuit, that he had made “false” statements about the women that were “defamatory per se.”

In her scathing opinion Tuesday, Howell detailed why monetary sanctions were required for Giuliani’s failure to comply with discovery requests in the case.

The judge wrote, “Due to Giuliani’s discovery conduct, plaintiffs have filed two motions to compel production from Giuliani and his eponymous businesses, Giuliani Communications LLC and Giuliani Partners LLC,” resulting in two hearings on those motions, and Howell ordering him multiple times to comply with discovery requests.

“The result of these efforts to obtain discovery from Giuliani, aside from his initial production of 193 documents, is largely a single page of communications, blobs of indecipherable data, a sliver of the financial documents required to be produced, and a declaration and two stipulations from Giuliani, who indicates in the latter stipulations his preference to concede plaintiffs’ claims rather than produce discovery in this case,” Howell wrote.

The judge wrote that Giuliani, in responding to discovery demands, had made “stipulations” that “hold more holes than Swiss cheese,” with the most recent one “expressly reserving his arguments” that the statements he made about the woman are legally protected and nonactionable “for purposes of appeal.”

Howell noted Giuliani’s efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral loss as she rejected that as a legitimate excuse not to turn over all of the information being sought by the women.

“Just as taking shortcuts to win an election carries risks — even potential criminal liability — bypassing the discovery process carries serious sanctions, no matter what reservations a noncompliant party may try artificially to preserve for appeal,” the judge wrote.

“Given the willful shirking of his discovery obligations in anticipation of and during this litigation, Giuliani leaves little other choice,” Howell wrote. “For the reasons set out below, the pending motion [for sanctions] is granted. Default judgment will be entered against Giuliani as a discovery sanction.”

She ordered Giuliani to personally pay $89,172.50 to the women to reimburse them for attorneys’ fees and costs related to their successful first motion to compel the production of that evidence.

Howell also ordered Giuliani to compel two of his companies to pay another $43,684 to the women for the same conduct.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 30, 2023