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Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday unsealed more records related to Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump. The newly unsealed documents detail allegations that Jack Smith’s prosecutor Jay Bratt threatened Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Trump’s valet driver Walt Nauta. Jay Bratt tried to bribe Stanley Woodward and threatened him with a sinking judicial nomination if he didn’t get Walt Nauta to testify against Trump. “Upon Mr. Woodward’s arrival at Main Justice, he was led to a conference room where Mr. Bratt awaited with what appeared to be a folder containing information about Mr. Woodward. Mr. Bratt thereupon told Mr....

Two key House GOP lawmakers on Tuesday launched an investigation into possible collusion between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the Democrats' Jan. 6 committee after uncovering evidence the prosecutor pursuing criminal charges against Donald Trump asked for evidence from Congress. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight, said they had unearthed a Dec. 17, 2021, letter from Willis asking Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the January 6 Select Committee, to provide her office evidence that could assist in her prosecution of Trump...

Special Counsel Jack Smith is now seeking to introduce evidence against Trump that isn’t even charged in the indictment. In September Trump was hit with 4 counts in Jack Smith’s January 6 case up in DC: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Jack Smith asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to allow his prosecutors to tell DC jurors about Trump’s statements on prior elections. Government prosecutors said Trump’s previous, First Amendment-protected statements claiming the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections were stolen are part...

New York Attorney General Letitia James has been handed a "smoking gun" in the civil fraud case against Donald Trump, according to an attorney. Jeffrey McConney, the Trump Organization's former corporate controller, testified on Tuesday that it was his understanding that Trump reviewed financial statements before they were finalized, contradicting previous testimony."This was probably the worst day for Donald in the New York City fraud case," attorney Joe Gallina said during an interview with Mary Trump, the former president's estranged niece. "This was very simply the smoking gun Attorney General Letitia James was looking for." James filed a lawsuit against...

There is no legitimate prosecutorial reason for Fani Willis to have struck these particular plea deals. They’re a means to an end.In the past week, the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis finalized “plea agreements” with three significant members of the group of 18 co-defendants indicted in Willis’ rambling Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) case filed this past August against former President Donald Trump and others. The pleas were with three prominent lawyers in the post-2020 election challenges: Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis. Each was charged with multiple felonies, including the lead RICO count, carrying...

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is melting down now that House Committees are asking questions, demanding documents, and interviews into what looks like the political targeting of President Donald Trump. Bragg is presently pursuing an indictment against Trump but, as we noted, there are a lot of problems in the case including the lies of the chief witness in the case, Michael Cohen. The grand jury proceedings were again postponed on Thursday, so they won’t have any further action on the matter until at least next week.Bragg was responding in part to the following letters from the House Judiciary Committee calling...

In an op-ed published by the Military Times, Sean Gallagher, brother of Navy SEAL Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, blasted politicians and military leaders who say President Trump's interventions in preventing more punitive action against his brother were wrong. Gallagher criticized "military attorneys, indignant Pentagon officials and your typical Washington establishment types" for being hypocritical when it came to good order and discipline. "Their views were mainly the same. The president’s actions were a moral hazard ! What message will it send our troops? What of good order and discipline? I have one question for these people: Where in the hell were...

Full title: Citing prosecutor misconduct, defense urges judge to drop charges against Navy SEAL charged with murderDefense attorneys for a Navy SEAL charged with war crimes argued Friday that military prosecutors’ actions amounted to misconduct so egregious that all the charges against their client, Chief Special Operator Edward R. Gallagher, should be dismissed. The judge in the case, while agreeing prosecutors violated Gallagher’s rights, did not immediately rule on their motion. Gallagher is charged with killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq in 2017 after providing medical care. Other charges he faces are related to fellow SEALs’ statements that he...

Full title: Lawyers defending accused SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher alleged prosecutors spied on them, and at least one reporter, via software attached to emails.A San Diego-based Navy SEAL charged with war crimes — including premeditated murder — was ordered released from pretrial restriction at Navy Base San Diego Thursday because the judge said prosecutors interfered with his defense counsel and caused delays in his trial. The delays are due to a Navy Criminal Investigative Service investigation into media leaks in the case. The judge said the release was a partial remedy. According to court testimony, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, the Navy’s...

This summer, the Supreme Court of the United States, in an act that has gained wide praised for its fairness, decided that Gov. Bob McDonnell had been wrongly convicted. He had broken no law and the Court was rightly concerned that if anti-corruption laws were applied so broadly, it would have the effect of deterring good people from running for public office. The worst example of such egregious prosecution was the railroading of an innocent city commissioner, Keith Wasserstrom. He was a pillar of his community who had stood up to local party bosses and paid a heavy price. What...

When a federal appeals court issued a ruling describing a prosecutor’s misconduct that forced a halt to a drug-trafficking trial in Tucson, the U.S. attorney’s response was to ask the court to erase the prosecutor’s name from the published decision. Bad move. After republishing the name of the errant prosecutor, Jerry Albert, the court pointed a finger at the U.S. attorney’s office and said it was time to start taking responsibility for the misdeeds of its employees. “When a prosecutor steps over the boundaries of proper conduct and into unethical territory, the government has a duty to own up to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were found not guilty on all charges on Tuesday in the first major criminal trial stemming from the housing and financial meltdown. A jury in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., acquitted Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. Both had worked as hedge fund managers at Bear Stearns, which went bankrupt in March 2008. Federal prosecutors had accused Cioffi and Tannin of falsely inflating the value of their portfolios, even as they knew that the mortgage-backed assets in the funds were at risk of collapse.

The chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which came under fire for the botched prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, is stepping down from his position. The official, William M. Welch II, who became a subject of an internal inquiry into the handling of the Stevens case, will return to Massachusetts, where he was a longtime federal prosecutor, and resume his career in that role. William W. Taylor, a lawyer representing him, said in a statement Wednesday that Mr. Welch had decided to move back to Massachusetts “for family reasons.” “While the ultimate result in the Stevens...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department called for the release of two convicted former state lawmakers in Alaska because of prosecutorial errors, in a new embarrassment for the department after it dropped charges against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Former Alaska state Reps. Peter Kott and Victor Kohring, both Republicans, were convicted in 2007 on bribery and extortion-related charges. Mr. Kott was sentenced to six years in prison and Mr. Kohring received a 3½-year term. Attorney General Eric Holder said a review of the two cases showed that prosecutors failed to provide information that should have been disclosed to the defense....

Prosecutor who had Cheney indicted yells at judge By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – A county prosecutor who brought indictments this week against Vice President Dick Cheney and others pounded his fist and shouted at the judge Friday during a routine hearing. Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra asked Presiding Judge Manuel Banales to recuse himself from the case, which alleges abuse at federally run prisons. Attorneys for the vice president and other defendants leapt to their feet in objection as Guerra pounded the table and accused Banales of giving the defendants special treatment. "Now all...

A federal judge on Wednesday allowed the criminal charges against Sen. Ted Stevens to stand, but he delivered a sharp blow to the government by throwing out key evidence in the case. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, in the second time in as many weeks, rejected a defense motion to declare a mistrial or dismiss all seven felony charges facing the Alaska Republican, but he scolded the government for keeping key evidence from defense lawyers that they could have used during cross-examination and their opening argument. “I don’t doubt you take your jobs seriously, what I have doubts about is whether...

A federal judge is considering dismissing Sen. Ted Stevens's criminal case after government prosecutors violated a court order to turn over critical evidence to the Alaska Republican's defense team. In a stunning beginning to a critical day in the trial, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan erupted at the Justice Department for waiting until just before midnight Wednesday to disclose FBI notes discussing Stevens's intent to pay for gifts that are at the center of his criminal trial. "Why shouldn't I dismiss the indictment?" Sullivan fumed. "It strikes me this is probably intentional." The judge said the two parties need to submit...

WASHINGTON — Nearly 32 months after a Texas grand jury indicted him for election-law violations, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay still hasn’t gotten his day in court on one count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. More than two years ago DeLay surrendered to a Harris County jail. Even by Texas standards, that lag is an unusually long time for a relatively minor criminal case to remain unresolved. It does take two to two-step: Appeals have been flying from the defendants as well as from Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle’s office. The...

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong is already facing complaints from the North Carolina State Bar that he made misleading, deceitful and fraudulent statements to the media about the Duke lacrosse case. Additional complaints that the DA intentionally hid DNA evidence favorable to the defendants could be added to that State Bar complaint. Nifong will defend himself before the State Bar in May. But Nifong could also be forced to defend himself before a jury in a civil trial down the road. In a recent interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," the parents of the three indicted players vowed to hold Nifong...

They don't have list of candidates at the heart of the laundering case, just a 'similar' one AUSTIN - Travis County prosecutors admitted Friday they lack physical proof of a list of Republican candidates that is at the heart of money-laundering indictments against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and two of his associates. The list is key to prosecutors being able to prove that corporate money that could not be legally spent on Texas candidates was specifically exchanged at the national level for donations that legally could be spent on Republican candidates for the Texas House. Indictments against DeLay, Jim Ellis...