Tag: legal team

Why Did Trump Bench Chris Kise, His Newest Legal-Team Add? Experts Weight in

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

After a new member of Donald Trump’s legal team was allegedly “sidelined” in the investigation into sensitive documents secreted from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home, some legal experts weighed in on the potential reasons for the shift.

Legal scholar Laurence Tribe tweeted Tuesday afternoon that he wondered if Trump had “yanked” a $3 million fee he’d reportedly agreed to pay Chris Kise.

“Or maybe he never actually paid Kise up front?” Tribes added. “Either way, quitting seems the only smart move Kise made since signing on with Trump.”

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers asked if the shift in Kise’s role meant that his team anticipates Trump might be charged soon in a Georgia investigation into his actions following the 2020 presidential election.

“Would make sense for Kise to lead the GA case defense with his state law experience and Trusty to stay on the fed case,” Rodgers said, referring to another Trump lawyer, James Trusty.

Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment and confirmation on the alleged changes involving Kise.

Kise Reportedly Sidelined in Mar-a-Lago Probe
Chris Kise, part of former President Donald Trump’s legal team, leaves the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building & Courthouse after a hearing in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 1, 2022. After Kise was reportedly “sidelined” in the investigation into sensitive documents hidden from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home, some legal experts weighed in on the potential reasons for the shift.
Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images

CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported Tuesday

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Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran: Trump’s attorneys face scrutiny over level of cooperation with Justice Department on classified docs

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

The FBI’s search on August 8 uncovering scores of classified material “cast serious doubt” on the sworn statement one of Trump’s lawyers made in June attesting that all classified material had been returned and a “diligent search” had been conducted, the Justice Department wrote.

Trump’s attorney Christina Bobb was the individual who signed the June 3 letter attesting that all materials requested by the subpoena issued to Trump had been turned over to the Justice Department, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

After receiving the subpoena, Trump’s team said it conducted a “diligent search” of boxes moved from the White House to Florida after Trump left office, according to the letter included in a DOJ court filing late Tuesday. Notably, the letter Bobb signed says she swears or affirms that “the above statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”

Though her name was redacted in Tuesday night’s filing, sources tell CNN it was Bobb who signed the letter and was designated the custodian of records. Bobb and Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran attended the meeting with federal investigators at Mar-a-Lago in June, when the agents were shown a storage room where materials were kept.

The New York Times, which first reported that Bobb had signed the document, reported that Corcoran drafted the June statement that Bobb signed.

Bobb and Corcoran did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. They have not been charged with any crimes.

Justice Department says <a href=classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were likely 'concealed and removed' to block investigation” src-mini=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-small-169.jpg” src-xsmall=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-medium-plus-169.jpg” src-small=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-large-169.jpg” src-medium=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-exlarge-169.jpg” src-large=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-super-169.jpg” src-full16x9=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-full-169.jpg” src-mini1x1=”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220830232932-doj-response-to-trump-special-master-small-11.jpg” data-demand-load=”not-loaded” data-eq-pts=”mini: 0, xsmall: 221, small: 308, medium: 461, large: 781″ bad-src=”data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhEAAJAJEAAAAAAP///////wAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAQAAkAAAIKlI+py+0Po5yUFQA7″/

In its court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department said that the FBI “uncovered multiple sources of evidence indicating that the response to the May 11 grand jury subpoena

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Trump attorneys respond to latest Justice Department filing on classified documents at Mar-a-Lago

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Donald Trump‘s legal team on Wednesday renewed its request for a third party to review documents FBI agents hidden from his Mar-a-Lago estate, arguing that left to their own devices, “unchecked investigators” would selectively leak bits of their investigation with no recourse for the former president.

“Left unchecked, the DOJ will impun, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation with no recourse for [Trump] but to somehow trust the self-restraint of currently unchecked investigators,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in response to Tuesday night’s filing from the Justice Department. “While DOJ may have succeeded in taking a partial filter to their rummaged proceeds, the need for a Special Master remains in place.”

Trump’s lawyers argue that appointing a special master would be a “modest step” to ensure access to a detailed inventory of confidential material and allow for independent assessments of attorney-client privilege and determinations of executive privilege.

The Justice Department opposed Trump’s request Aug. 22 for a special master. It said Trump’s request was “unnecessary,” adding that granting such a request “would significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests.”

The Justice Department also said it had developed evidence “that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” with government records “likely concealed and removed” in the months before the Aug. 8 searches.

In a footnote to Wednesday’s filing, Trump’s legal team said it will not respond to every allegation in the government’s filing, but it specifically disputed the Justice Department’s characterization of a June 3 meeting between Justice Department official Jay Bratt and Trump attorneys Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb .

The government has “significantly mischaracterized” the meeting and may have misled US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart if that description of the meeting was included in the search warrant affidavit that Reinhart signed off

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Musk Subpoenas Twitter Cofounder, Friend Jack Dorsey

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton
  • Elon Musk’s legal team sent out a slew of subpoenas on Monday, including one for Jack Dorsey.
  • Dorsey resigned as Twitter’s CEO last year and has supported Musk’s Twitter purchase.
  • The legal request calls for documents related to user data and systems for identifying spam accounts.

Elon Musk’s legal team subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Monday as the Tesla CEO prepares to battle the social media company in court later this year.

Twitter is suing Musk to force him to buy the company for $44 billion after trying to walk away from the purchase in July. Musk has since countersued the company.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment. Dorsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication.

Musk’s legal request includes any documents or communications Dorsey might possess dating back to January 1, 2019 related to the merger, “the impact or effect of false or spam accounts on Twitter’s business and operations,” and any systems Twitter has used or discussed related to detecting and labeling spam accounts.

The billionaire’s legal team has accused Twitter of operating a “scheme” to mislead investors regarding the company’s prospects and intentionally “miscounting” the number of spam accounts on the site. Meanwhile, Twitter has said Musk’s complaints are merely an excuse for him to walk away from the deal.

Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter, stepped down as CEO of the social media company in November, leaving the company to current CEO Parag Agrawal.

Dorsey is a longtime friend of Musk. He supported the billionaire when he attempted to take a seat on Twitter’s board in April, prior to deciding to purchase the company outright. In April, Dorsey said Musk was the “singular solution I trust” when it came to leading the company.

Dorsey

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Amber Heard hires two Philly attorneys for appeal in defamation case involving Johnny Depp

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Amber Heard’s expected appeal of the $10.4 million defamation verdict reached in favor of her ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp, will feature a new legal team led by a pair of Philadelphia attorneys.

David L. Axelrod and Jay Ward Brown, of Ballard Spahr, are joining Heard’s previous co-counsel Ben Rottenborn in the appeal to have the judgment against her rescinded. Heard has let go of her primary attorney, Elaine Bredehoft, who had represented the “Aquaman” actress during the trial covering domestic abuse allegations made by Heard and Depp.

In June, after a bitter, six-week trial in Virginia, a civil jury awarded Depp $10.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Heard also was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages on one of her counterclaims.

Heard, 36, was sued by Depp for $50 million in 2019 over a Washington Post op-ed she had written about becoming a public advocate for people suffering from domestic abuse. Depp, 59, was not named in the 2018 article, but the actor claimed Heard had lied about being abused during their marriage, which had ended two years earlier. Depp’s legal team argued that the story’s context unmistakably damaged his career as an actor.

Depp previously lost a 2020 libel lawsuit he brought in the United Kingdom, where The Sun tabloid had published a story calling Depp a “wife beater.” That case was not tried by a jury.

Heard’s testimony during the case in Virginia was widely dissected and questioned as the trial unfolded, magnified by widespread media coverage. After the verdict, Heard said she stood by “heard-says-she-stands-by-every-word-of-her-testimony-142070341691″every word“of her testimony and depp-entertainment-virginia-2cda216ee77d92445b7c1b54f146bdd5″ title=””notified the court last month that she will appeal the decision.

Axelrod and Brown said Monday that they anticipate the appeal will hinge on arguments surrounding the First Amendment.

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