Must Read Article: DC Law

February 16, 2020 By Clarice Feldman

So many of this week’s top news stories involve legal matters in Washington, D.C. that I’m making it the focus of this week’s column. There’s the Roger Stone case, the decision to close the investigation into Andrew McCabe over the Horowitz referral that indicated that he had lied to the FBI about the Clinton email leak, and Congressman Jerry Nadler’s calling Attorney General William Barr as a witness in an upcoming hearing.

(a) The Problem with DC juries

Washington, D.C. has a relatively small population from which jurors must be found for the federal and local grand juries, petit juries, and civil juries...........

(b) The Roger Stone Sentence

Here is the indictment of Roger Stone. The back story is here:.........Is it unusual for the Department of Justice to oversee such conduct? No. Attorney General Barr explains:

(c) Jury Foreperson Tomeka Hart

Following the resignation of the prosecutors who were overruled, Tomeka Hart tweeted support for them and independent journalist Mike Cernovich searched her Twitter feeds, which revealed contrary to her statements at voir dire that she “didn’t pay that close attention” to the probe and that Stone’s connection to President Trump would “absolutely not” color her views of him, she had regularly commented on the collusion probe, demonstrated extreme bias against Trump and his supporters, all of whom she called racists, and immediately upon Stone’s conviction tweeted hearts and fist bumps. Here’s the transcript (She’s juror 1261)..........

(d) Trump Tweets

The press made a to-do of Attorney General Barr’s statement that he wished the President would stop tweeting about ongoing cases. The media might have been born yesterday, but all were not. In contrast to Trump’s tweet, which was made only after conviction and concerned the length of the proposed sentence, here are some reminders of President Barack Obama commenting on criminal cases which were then ongoing:............

(e) McCabe Case Closed The Justice Department announced this week that it was closing the case against Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, for lying. As you can imagine, this created a storm on the right, after the outrageously tough sentence being asked for the hapless Roger Stone, not to speak of the handling of Hillary’s numerous lies under oath. There have been various explanations given for this, including -- you guessed it -- the unlikelihood of a D.C. jury convicting him of a process crime. Is he off the hook entirely? Maybe not -- that case involves only his lying about the Clinton email leak noted in the Horowitz report. There’s still U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation of the entire Barack Obama team.......

(f) Barr to Testify

Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has asked Barr to testify about a number of things, including the decision to propose a reduction in Stone’s sentence, now probably moot as a mistrial is almost a certainty. Barr has agreed and will testify on March 31. In my opinion, Barr and Justice Neil Gorsuch are probably two of the smartest, most able lawyers in the entire vast sea of D.C. lawyers. I predict Nadler will end up as a 300-pound lump of melting suet. .........To Read The Entire Article