Dear listeners,
Top officials in the Trump administration were slated to meet at Camp David this week to figure out what the hell to do about the so-called Epstein Files. There’s talk of releasing a transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent interview of Ghislaine Maxwell; releasing that transcript would be highly irregular, and the fact that the interview was transcribed at all is irregular, says Ken. (Doesn’t it seem like these things should always be transcribed? Ken and I discuss why the government often doesn't want a detailed record of what a cooperating witness has said.)
Meanwhile, Maxwell has a colorable argument that her conviction should be thrown out because she was supposed to be covered by the sweetheart deal Jeffrey Epstein cut with federal prosecutors back during the Bush administration. There’s a circuit split on the underlying issue, and Maxwell hopes the Supreme Court will take up her case to resolve it — but as Ken describes, the court might prefer to wait for a less weird case to resolve the same legal questions. And we talk about Maxwell’s recent move into a much nicer federal prison than the one where she was living in Florida.
Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl are pleading no-contest — not to any big-boy federal felonies, but to Michigan state crimes relating to their voter-suppression robocalls. Wohl — who, at 27 years old, can now rent a car without paying a surcharge — has avoided custodial sentences in other states. If you’re a Michigan criminal lawyer, why don’t you write to us and say what you think might befall him in your neck of the woods?
We have California news: the Ninth Circuit has denied the government a stay with regard to the temporary restraining order restricting the grounds on which ICE can detain suspected illegal migrants, at least within the Central District of California (that is, Los Angeles and its very extended environs). US Attorney for the Central District Bill Essayli is frustrated because grand juries keep declining to indict anti-ICE activists. And in the Valley, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas has been indicted for running an illegal poker game, for which he obtained a poker table whose felt reads “ARENAS POKER CLUB” giant type. As Ken says, this is a “bad fact,” and Arenas should probably have thought twice before petitioning for the return of seized funds on the grounds that he had no idea anyone was playing poker at the ARENAS POKER CLUB.
And! We have updates in the Trump v. Murdoch case and regarding an apparent DOJ investigation into James Comey.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
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