All posts tagged "Prosecutor"

One former assistant U.S. attorney is arguing that President Donald Trump's pardon of a convicted drug trafficker doesn't jibe with his stated reason for blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea.

During a Monday segment on MS NOW, Sean Murphy — who was a Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor during former President Joe Biden's administration — told host Katy Tur that he was unable to make sense of Trump's recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, and his ongoing strikes on boats his administration alleges are trafficking drugs to the United States.

"It's very Orwellian, even the way that he says both, 'I'm going to go after drug traffickers and address this drug problem, but then pardon someone who is literally at the top of these drug trafficking activities,'" Murphy said. "He's killing people who are the lowest-level offenders without any evidence that they even know what's on their boat ... But here he's issuing this pardon."...

A former Texas judge serving time on death row for gunning down a prosecutor in front of a courthouse and also slaying a district attorney and wife months later is seeking a new capital punishment trial.

Nearly a decade after the one-time Kaufman County justice of the peace Eric Williams was convicted of going on a killing spree that killed Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife Cynthia, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse — he wants another crack in the court, according to WFAA.

In his 169-page filing, Williams claims his defense was hastily prepared for the state's case, argued that the judge was biased, and that moving the trial venue from Kaufman County to Rockwall County was insufficient in toning down the trial's high media profile....

Donald Trump's recent Supreme Court victory, which saw the high court refusing to expedite review of the former president's arguments that he's immune from prosecution in the D.C. election subversion case, won't stop him from being tried "well before" the 2024 election, a Florida prosecutor said Monday.

State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg on Christmas day appeared on MSNBC's Richard Lui Reports, where he was asked about the rejection Special Counsel Jack Smith saw at the Supreme Court when he asked to leapfrog another appeals court. Aronberg began by suggesting Trump was attempting to put himself above the law, and make himself a "king," by seeking presidential immunity in the criminal matter.

"The only loss for Jack Smith has been at the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court said no, we're not going to big foot the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to intervene, we'll let them to do it," Aronberg said, adding what he believes will happen at the lower appeals court....

Former Florida state attorney Monique Worrell, an elected Democrat whom Republican Governor Ron DeSantis suspended from her post earlier this year, is now asking the state supreme court to reinstate her while accusing the governor of removing her for political gain.

Politico reports Worrell was bringing her case before Florida's supreme court — notably the same day DeSantis is appearing in a Republican presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Worrell, who was elected to her central Florida district by voters in Osceola and Orange Counties in 2020, was suspended in August of 2023. Gov. DeSantis accused Worrell of being too lenient on defendants, and allowing reduced sentences for defendants convicted of violent crimes.

"Our votes have been stolen, our justice has been killed and our democracy is being destroyed," Worrell said, adding that DeSantis' "authoritarian" decision to remove her was motivated by his presidential ambitions. She said if the state's highest court sides with DeSantis, "it will set the precedent whether or not the governor can single-handedly remove every Democrat in this state."...

If defendant Donald Trump opts to testify in his criminal subversion trial — it could prove disastrous.

Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner spells out the circumstances that are at play once the federal trial gets underway in Washington D.C., where the former president stands accused of engaging in an array of conspiracies to cling to power after being defeated in the 2020 presidential election.

"Once these cases move into court proper, the Rules of Evidence govern," Kirschner told American progressive YouTuber Bryan Tyler Cohen. "So here's what will happen: Every single thing that ever comes out of his mouth — the Rules Of Evidence say that's admissible as a statement of a party opponent and Jack Smith will admit it into evidence to prove its guilt — everything that has ever come out of Donald Trump's mouth -- that is nonsense, that is B.S., that's a bunch of lies and deflection and projection... Guess what? It's not admissible."...

Donald Trump's legal team may have made a big blunder in its latest move, a legal expert said on Tuesday.

Trump, who has been fighting off a New York civil fraud case in which he has already been found liable, is still denying any fraudulent activity when it comes to the estimates of his worth. Those estimates and other Trump Organization filings were used to secure bank loans on favorable terms in violation of civil statutes, according to the prosecution.

The attorneys for Trump recently made a legal move that is raising eyebrows, at least for former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega. Specifically, she criticized the former president's legal team's decision to make his testimony the last one heard in the trial, calling the move "dumb."...