#t.s. ellis iii

[acidblum]

BABYSITTER!VI AO3

✦;𝐠!𝐩. ✶;𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭. ꩜;𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟. ♱;𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭.

— TLOU ☆ Cold • A.A. • ii [✶,♱] ☆ i see you T.S. [✶]

— Headcanons ☆ dealer!ellie [꩜] ☆ dbf!tess [✶] ☆ pirate!ellie [꩜]

— Blurbs ☆ bodybuilder!abby [꩜] ☆ professor!abby ☆ jock!abby ☆ angst!ellie — Series ☆ Torn Apart • i

☆ Яitual • i, ii, iii

— ARCANE ☆ kitchen • S. (tba)

— Blurbs

☆ quickie • sevika [✶] ☆ shower • sevika [✶] ☆ sag!sevika ☆ rugger!sevika [✦] ☆ fighting for dominance!sevika [✦] ☆ tribbing • caitlyn [✶] ☆ bdsm • ambessa [✶]

☆ boob job • caitlyn [✦]

☆ sub!top cowboy!sevika [✶]

— Drabbles

☆ good ol’ alleyway • biker!sevika [✶]

[beardedmrbean]

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Defense lawyers for a British national facing trial later this month for helping the Islamic State group torture and behead American hostages are seeking to block testimony from a Kurdish girl held as a slave by the group.

The girl, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, was abducted at age 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by the Islamic State. She spent several weeks in captivity with American Kayla Mueller, whose death at the hands of the Islamic State will be a key issue at trial.

The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with playing a key role in Mueller's abduction, ransom and eventual death, along with three other Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.

In court papers filed late Tuesday, Elsheikh's lawyers say Jane Doe was told after her abduction to forget about her family because she would be “selected for marriage” by an ISIS fighter.

Doe escaped, but she was caught the next morning and beaten with sticks, belts and hoses. It was then that she was taken to a prison, where Mueller was also held, according to the defense memo.

After a month, Doe, Mueller, and two other girls were taken into captivity by a senior ISIS leader named Abu Sayyaf, where they were locked in a bedroom other than when they were cleaning or gardening.

Doe escaped the home in October 2014 and made her way back into Kurdish custody. Information she provided helped U.S. fighters launch a raid in May 2015 that killed Abu Sayyaf and other ISIS fighters, according to the memo.

Mueller, who was killed in February 2015, was raped by the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during her time in captivity, according to the indictment.

Inside the house, U.S. fighters recovered ISIS documents justifying slavery and guidelines for how it should be implemented.

Elsheikh's lawyers are seeking to keep the slavery documents from being introduced at trial, and want to severely limit Doe's testimony, restricting it only to her time in captivity with Mueller.

The evidence “is unduly inflammatory and would only cause undue prejudice against Mr. Elsheikh, confuse the issues, and mislead the jury by imputing the actions of others to Mr. Elsheikh,” defense lawyers Nina Ginsberg, Edward MacMahon and Jessica Carmichael wrote.

While Doe's testimony may not central to the case against Elsheikh, it provides a glimpse into some of the emotionally powerful evidence jurors will confront if the case indeed goes to trial at the end of the month.

Elsheikh is one of four British nationals who joined the Islamic State, dubbed “the Beatles” by their captives because of their accents. Elsheikh and a co-defendant, Alexenda Kotey, were captured in Syria in 2018 and brought to Virginia in 2020 to stand trial in federal court.

Kotey pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing. A third Beatle, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John,” was killed in a 2015 drone strike. The fourth member was sentenced to prison in Turkey.

Federal prosecutors will respond to the defense memo about Jane Doe at a later date. So far, though, prosecutors have been successful in turning aside defense efforts to restrict evidence at trial. The presiding judge, T.S. Ellis III, ruled earlier this year that prosecutors can use incriminating statements Elsheikh made in interrogations and in media interviews. Defense lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the statements were coerced.

As for the slavery documents, defense lawyers argue that it would be unfair to ascribe them to Elsheikh because he did not write them. But in a 2018 interview with journalist Jenan Moussa after he was captured, Elsheikh said slavery was justified under Islamic law.

"Islamic texts have spoken about slavery and rights of a slave. There is a whole jurisprudence about slavery and the rights of slaves and the rights of slave owners,” he said in an interview.

[antoine-roquentin]

On Wednesday morning, a private jet chartered by the US government landed in Tel Aviv.

On board was Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a Palestinian business professor who ran for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority in 2005.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were attempting to secretly deport him to Israel, which would then transfer him to the West Bank.

But contrary to the plan, the aircraft was met by a US embassy official who told the ICE agents on board that they could not hand Ashqar over.

Pursuant to an emergency order issued by a federal judge back in Virginia, Ashqar had to remain on the plane in US custody.

He would sit on the grounded plane for more than a day while a legal drama unfolded back in the US.

This account was provided to The Electronic Intifada by Patrick Taurel, Ashqar’s attorney.

Ashqar told Taurel and members of his family what happened, following his return to the United States late Thursday US time.

Ashqar’s return capped an extraordinary 72 hours in which ICE deliberately lied to Ashqar and his lawyer before essentially abducting him and putting him on the jet bound for Tel Aviv.

It was only the intervention of US District Judge T.S Ellis III that ensured that Ashqar was brought back to the US after his ordeal.

It involved a late-night hearing by telephone in which the judge demanded to know if the government could land the plane in any other country before it reached Tel Aviv, or return it to Vienna where it had stopped to refuel.

Ashqar is now being held at a detention center in Bowling Green, Virginia.

[deepfinds-blog]

Paul Manafort trial Day 9 live updates: Ellis comments challenged again

Paul Manafort trial Day 9 live updates: Ellis comments challenged again

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, is on trial in federal court in Alexandria on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors allege he failed to pay taxes on millions he made from his work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, then lied to get loans when the cash stopped coming in.

The case is being prosecuted by the special counsel investigating Russian…

[dailybrian]

Finally! Federal Judge Blasts Mueller’s “Unfettered Power,” Demands ‘Memo’

New on www.DailyBrian.com

http://bit.ly/2wmcDyT

Finally! Federal Judge Blasts Mueller’s “Unfettered Power,” Demands ‘Memo’

Link to this Article:  Link to this Article: ...

[phroyd]

WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with an associate tied to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign, prosecutors alleged, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.

The accusations came to light in a document filed by Mr. Manafort’s defense lawyers that was supposed to be partly blacked out but contained a formatting error that accidentally revealed the information.

Prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, broke off a plea agreement with Mr. Manafort in November, accusing him of repeatedly lying to them. The details of their accusations have been kept largely secret until now.

In one portion of the filing that Mr. Manafort’s lawyers tried to redact, they instead also revealed that Mr. Manafort “may have discussed a Ukraine peace plan” with the Russian associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, “on more than one occasion.”

Investigators have been questioning witnesses about whether Russia tried to influence the Trump administration to broker a resolution to hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. Various “peace plans” were proposed, including at least one that called for the lifting of American sanctions against Russia. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik had worked closely together for years on behalf of Russia-aligned Ukrainian interests.

Prosecutors have also accused Mr. Manafort of misleading them about his contacts with senior administration officials, about a payment from a pro-Trump political action committee made to cover his legal expenses, and about how he and Mr. Kilimnik tried to influence the testimony of witnesses to ward off criminal charges.

In their filing, Mr. Manafort’s defense lawyers said that Mr. Manafort never intentionally misled federal authorities. Instead, they blamed a faulty memory, lack of access to his own records and illness for his mistakes, saying their client has gout, depression and anxiety.

But they said that they would not seek a hearing to challenge the prosecutors’ assertions Mr. Manafort lied, a decision that brings Mr. Manafort one step closer to being sentenced for his crimes. He was convicted last year of 10 felonies including conspiracy to obstruct justice and failure to disclose years of lobbying work for pro-Russia oligarchs in Ukraine.

The decision not to seek a hearing reflected the dearth of legal choices for Mr. Manafort, 69, who led Mr. Trump’s campaign during a crucial period in mid-2016, then became a prime target of Mr. Mueller’s team. One prosecution in Northern Virginia resulted in his jury conviction in August for bank fraud, tax fraud and other financial crimes. A second led to his guilty plea in September on two conspiracy charges.

He agreed then to assist federal prosecutors in any matter they deemed of interest, including the special counsel’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign. He met 12 times with prosecutors or investigators from the special counsel’s team and from other offices, traveling from a detention center in suburban Washington where he has been held in solitary confinement since June.

The plea agreement gives the prosecutors the power to almost unilaterally decide whether Mr. Manafort has violated it. Unless Mr. Manafort can show they acted in bad faith — a high bar — their judgment stands. The prosecutors could also decide to file new charges against Mr. Manafort for lying to them, but do not plan to do so, according to the defense lawyers’ filing, unsealed Tuesday.

“They have him so deeply in the soup here that what both sides are almost saying that this doesn’t matter,” said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor.

The new filing came one month after Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in Federal District Court in Washington that she needed to know more about the prosecutors’ latest accusations against Mr. Manafort before she sentenced him on two conspiracy charges, which carry a maximum penalty of five years each. Judge T.S. Ellis III in Northern Virginia will sentence him for the other eight felonies.

Phroyd

[npr]

Bank and tax fraud trials normally aren't very compelling theater.

When it's the former campaign chairman for the current president of the United States, however, and it's the first trial brought by a special counsel tasked with investigating Russian interference in American democracy, things are a bit more interesting.

TV cameras lined up before 5 a.m. in preparation for the first day of Paul Manafort's federal trial last week. At one point Wednesday, after a prosecutor played coy about a key witness testifying, reporters scurried to break the news like "rats," outspoken Judge T.S. Ellis III remarked.

And that's not even mentioning the $15,000 ostrich leather jacket.

Here are four insights from the week that was and a look ahead to Manafort's second week on trial in Alexandria, Va.

4 Insights As Manafort Trial Enters Week 2

Sketch by Art Lien

[verycleverboy]

“Mind-boggling”

The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of President Trump’s campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel investigation. But it was an unlikely candidate to become the latest example of a conflict that has vexed legal professionals and activists for decades: systemic inequality in the criminal justice system.

Yet, as a federal judge handed down his sentence in jam-packed Alexandria, Va., courtroom Thursday, and observers digested the judge’s decision — 47 months — Manafort’s case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes.

“Paul Manafort’s lenient 4-year sentence — far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction — is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America,” said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a Thursday-night tweet.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Manafort faced up to 24 years in prison for bank fraud and for cheating on his taxes, yet U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said that calculation was “excessive.” Manafort’s crime’s were “very serious,” Ellis said, but they didn’t warrant a punishment that could keep the 69-year-old imprisoned into his 90s.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and expert in financial crimes, said Manafort’s sentence was very light “by any stretch of the imagination.”  Manafort, who once agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors but then was found to have lied to them, got a sentence that resembled someone’s who did not renege on their cooperation agreement, Levin said. 

“His crimes went on for an extremely long time, at the very highest levels of our government and deeply affected our democracy,” Levin told The Washington Post. “To get away with it for such a short sentence is something that is absolutely mind-boggling.”

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender services, was one of many lawyers who had a problem with the sentence:

He has more examples, and when they’re viewed next to white collar cases, it seems to point to an unfortunate truth about the American justice system.

[ms-cellanies]

Federal Judge T.S. Ellis III is the judge who sentenced Paul Manafort today to 47 months in prison.  The prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation was 19 -24 years.  OUTRAGEOUS, imho, on this judge’s part.  Judge Ellis also said during the sentencing that Manafort had, until these “recent” events, led a BLAMELESS life.  Manafort worked for dictators to improve their public “images” and stole a large sum of money from a Russian oligarch and then went into hiding.  Those are just TWO of Manafort’s past criminal activities.  Anyway, the article at the link above gives a short list of “highlights” on Ellis’ past rulings in case you, like me, wanted to know more about this judge.

[vulgartrader]

Judge in Manafort Trial Says He's Been Threatened

From Fox News:

...[T]he judge in the fraud trial revealed Friday he has received threats over the case and now travels with U.S. Marshals.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, in rejecting a motion to release juror information to the media, argued that he's confident the jurors would be threatened as well if their information were to be made public.

“I can tell you there have been [threats]. ... I don't feel right if I release their names,” he said.

The deliberations are dragging on, indicating good news for the defense. Even if convicted, Manafort could get time served since he has spent months in solitary confinement already and the judge has shown his frustration with the prosecution.

[donman2112]

Federal Judge Accuses Robert Mueller of Lying and Targeting President Trump

President Trump was just sent a gift-wrapped explosive in the form of critique towards Special Counsel Robert Mueller from a federal judge who says that Mueller not only lied but is directly targeting President Trump.

The ongoing witch hunt into the Trump Administration seems to know zero boundaries, with Robert Mueller being appointed to investigate alleged “Russian meddling,” and nearly sixteen months into the Trump Presidency having found zero evidence to support that claim.

United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III blasted Robert Mueller on Friday at a Paul Manafort hearing in a federal courtroom, where Judge Ellis said that Mueller's team of Democratic-puppet investigators have lied to the government about the scope of their investigation.

Judge Ellis said that instead of finding evidence of any of the alleged meddling into our elections, that Mueller has abused federal law enforcement agencies into doing his dirty work, and that he's “seeking unfettered power” in their efforts to bring down a sitting President.

Robert Mueller is a criminal, who's trying to take down President Trump to protect the globalists who appointed him as well as himself in the Uranium One scandal, which is the actual “Russian collusion” case that Mueller seems to ignore completely.

Where are any arrests in regards to either “Russian meddling,” or “Russian collusion,” the claims that were made about the 2016 elections when the similarly corrupt Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to the position of Special Counsel?

Instead, we’re seeing the Trump Administration targeted in one of the most biased investigations in American history, stopping at nothing and reaching the depths of despair in trying to frame the 45th President of the United States of America, even raising the offices of his attorney, Michael Cohen.

Disgusting and clear bias has perpetuated from the Mueller probe, and it's as apparent as the scent of rotting fish illuminating from a garbage can. Even a blind man can smell the corruption and the motives driving this assault upon the White House and those close to the President.

"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort,” US District Judge T.S. Ellis III said to Mueller’s rag-tag team of puppet investigators. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever."

It's about time for this to end. Mueller has overreached in his efforts to cover-up crimes committed by his friends in the Democratic Party, and the only real collusion is that which occurred in the last Administration as well as that which is happening now from Robert Mueller in regards to the attempted coup he's been hand-selected to orchestrate.

The Paul Manafort hearing today was an effort for his attorneys to attempt to dismiss the 18-counts against him stemming from alleged criminal activities that the FBI was aware of several years ago long before Donald Trump had ever planned to run for office.

It's in no way related to the Presidency, not are these charges related to what Mueller was appointed to investigate in the first place.

To make matters worse, Manafort was an informant for the Department of Justice who also knew of every activity Manafort was engaged in and saw no need to prosecute at the time.

Yet here we are in 2018, millions of dollars flushed down the toilet at the hands of Robert Mueller, and he's abusing his role as some type of unlimited power grasping super-villain, being able to command the FBI to do as he pleases and use the full spectrum of intelligence and spying tools to enforce his coup attempt.

It's an outright disgrace.

As Rudy Giuliani recently said, it's time to shut it down, and as Representative Louie Gohmert proclaimed, it's time to investigate Robert Mueller for his role in Uranium One.

The charade cannot be allowed to continue. Mueller thinks he's some shadow-Attorney General, having control over the entire Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and all of the taxpayer-funded resources at their fingertips.

There's a hearing today involving Manafort before District Judge T.S. Ellis III regarding alleged crimes that date as far back as the year 2005.

Judge Ellis said that the information which is being used against Manafort didn't “arise’ from the Special Counsel probe and that it cannot be used within the scope of the investigation.

This is a significant blow to Robert Mueller. He has nothing left. “We don’t want anyone with unfettered power,” Judge Ellis said.

Mueller's team attempted to persuade the Judge, to no avail. Judge Ellis responded using the phrase “C’Mon Man,” in regards to the idiocracy of what the scope of their investigation is, and the government's inability to accurately state what that scope of power granted to Mueller is.

The federal government now has two weeks to hand over documents which support or disavow the amount of power Mueller was granted. Otherwise the case will be thrown out.

"We said this was what the investigation was about, but we are not bound by it and we were lying,” Judge Ellis said of Mueller's team, proclaiming that they're manipulating everyone about what their intentions are.

Prosecutors also said that there is crucial information inside the government scope of power given to Mueller, attempting to prevent the handover of the documents.

Again, Judge Ellis wasn't having it. “I'll be the Judge of that,” Ellis said.

Mueller is on a slippery slope now. Several members of Congress have called for the investigation of Robert Mueller's role in Uranium One, and many are suggesting that it's time for his termination.

Bye Mueller. You report to the Deputy Attorney General, and that's how this works. You do not have the power to continue to lie to the federal government in your witch hunt against Trump.

Additional Sources or Relevant Information:

foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/04/federal-judge-accuses-muellers-team-lying-trying-to-target-trump-cmon-man.amp.html

[investmart007]

WASHINGTON | Prosecutors: Manafort says he's treated like 'VIP' in jail

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/gRicRg

WASHINGTON | Prosecutors: Manafort says he's treated like 'VIP' in jail

WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump’s jailed former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has said in monitored phone calls that he is being treated like a “VIP” while behind bars, federal prosecutors said Wednesday as they argued against postponing his financial crimes trial. Defense lawyers called the statements from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office “self-serving and inaccurate.”

The dueling court filings are part of an ongoing tussle over Manafort’s confinement that began after a judge revoked his house arrest last month and ordered him jailed on witness tampering allegations. Since then, Manafort’s lawyers have said they cannot properly prepare for a trial scheduled to start later this month with a client jailed two hours outside of Washington, D.C.

In response, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III directed that Manafort be moved from his current jail to one in Alexandria, Virginia, where the federal courthouse is located, so that he can be closer to his lawyers. Ellis insisted this week that the transfer proceed even after Manafort’s lawyers, citing concerns Tuesday about his safety and adjusting to a new jail so close to his trial date, asked that he stay put.

Manafort is scheduled for trial on July 25 on assorted charges arising from his Ukrainian political work.

In their court filing Wednesday, prosecutors sought to pick apart Manafort’s arguments that he needs to delay the trial because of his jail conditions.

They pointed out that he has had a personal telephone in his unit at the Northern Neck Regional Jail and has had more than 100 phone calls with his lawyers in the last three weeks as they prepare for trial. He has a personal laptop on which he can review materials from the case and access to his own workspace to meet with his legal team, they said. Visitors’ logs show Manafort having multiple visits each week with his lawyers, according to the prosecutors.

Though Manafort’s lawyers have said he spends nearly all of his days in solitary confinement, prosecutors described his living arrangements as a “private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than other inmates’ units” with its own bathroom and shower.

“On the monitored prison phone calls, Manafort has mentioned that he is being treated like a ‘VIP,'” prosecutors quoted him as having said. They also said Manafort has said in the calls that he is able to visit with his lawyers every day and that he has “all my files like I would at home.”

Defense lawyers, in response, said the government had selected “snippets” of the conversations to support their version of events. They said Mueller’s team “does not pause to consider the reasons a detained defendant might have to make his situation sound better when speaking with concerned friends and family.”

“While the opposition does not generally misrepresent the confinement conditions, its cavalier dismissal of the challenges of preparing for back-to-back complex white collar criminal trials while the defendant is in custody shows a lack of concern with fairness or due process,” the lawyers wrote.

___

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

[go-redgirl]

Judge in Manafort case accuses Mueller of gunning for Trump's 'impeachment or prosecution' CNBC ^ | 05-04-2018 | Dan Mangan

A federal judge Friday accused special counsel Robert Mueller's team of using criminal charges to squeeze former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort to get his help in possibly either prosecuting or impeaching President Donald Trump, multiple reports said.

The judge also strongly suggested that Mueller exceeded the scope of his special counsel office's authorization by charging Manafort with crimes that have nothing to do with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election or possible Trump campaign collusion with Russians.

"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said at a hearing on Manafort's case in Virginia federal court, where the trial in the case is set to begin July 10.

"You really care about what information he might give you about Mr. Trump and what might lead to his impeachment or prosecution," Ellis said.

"That's what you're really interested in," the judge added, saying Mueller's prosecutors are trying to get Manafort to "sing."

Lawyers for Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign manager for several months in 2016, were asking Ellis to dismiss bank fraud charges brought by Mueller, saying the special counsel does not have the authority to bring such charges in this case...

...Ellis questioned why the United States attorney's office in Alexandria, Virginia, was not handling the case in federal court there, as opposed to the special counsel's office.

"I don't see how this indictment has to do with anything the special prosecutor is authorized to investigate," Ellis said.

He also told a prosecutor in Mueller's office at the hearing that he wants to see an uncensored copy of a memo that outlines the scope of the special counsel's investigation.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com

[phroyd]

In May, Mueller asked the court to issue 90 sets of subpoenas for potential witnesses for the Manafort trial. Wednesday’s request is for five additional sets.

The last round of preparations for the fast-approaching trial in Virginia appear to be underway; on Tuesday, Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed to reschedule the trial date from July 24 to July 25.

The request was made in light of conflicting schedules Manafort has with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia where he will also stand trial in September.

Traditionally, subpoenas are issued in sets before a trial – one copy for the prosecution and one for the defense.

This latest request marks a small development in Mueller’s subpoena requests overall. In May, he asked for only 70 blank sets. Wednesday’s filing marks five more sets heaped onto the existing pile.

A spokesman from the special counsel’s ofice declined to comment Wednesday.

At the bottom of Wednesday’s request, under a straightforward instruction that subpoena recipients bring along relevant records or documents they’ve electronically stored to court this July, an additional line beneath it can’t be read. It is marked as “under seal.”

Manafort, who faces multiple counts of bank and tax fraud, plus conspiracy and making false statements is scheduled to appear this Friday in Washington D.C. before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Judge Jackson will consider whether or not Manafort’s bail should be revoked in light of recent allegations by Mueller that the former Trump campaign chairman tampered with a witness. The basis for the allegations stemmed from evidence an FBI agent compiled after monitoring Manafort’s communications following his arrest.

The agent claimed Manafort and a former business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, obstructed justice when they “knowingly and intentionally” attempted to push witnesses off testifying at the forthcoming trials. Special Counsel claims the men wanted witnesses to testify in a way that deflected any connections between American officials and their own lobbying work.

In a response to the obstruction charge on June 9, Manafort’s attorney Kevin Downing challenged the allegations, saying Mueller was conjuring up a “sinister plot” around both Kilimnik and Manafort.

According to the Washington Post, Kilimnik is believed to be living in Russia. If so, extradition will almost certainly be off the table since Russia does not extradite its citizens.

If Jackson rules in favor of prosecutors Friday and revokes his bond, Manafort will wait out the remainder of time before trial in jail.

Phroyd

[ericfruits]

Three Categories Of Victims

The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has suspended a convicted attorney.

From the press release of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia

A federal jury convicted a Fairfax attorney today on charges of conspiring to defraud and to launder fraud proceeds totaling over $1.5 million, including funds embezzled from Virginia State Senator Richard Saslaw’s campaign account, a Canadian business, and an organization intended to support students with autism and other intellectual disabilities.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, David H. Miller, 70, conspired with his wife, Linda Diane Wallis, to defraud three categories of victims from 2011 through 2014. First, Miller, an attorney, conspired with Wallis to create two fake law firms, Federal Legal Associates and The Straile Group. Miller and Wallis used the two fake law firms to fraudulently bill Miller’s employer, SkyLink Air and Logistic Support, Inc. (SkyLink), a Canadian based aviation company that maintained an office in Dulles, for purported legal work that was never actually performed. Miller and Wallis caused approximately $368,400 in losses to SkyLink. 

Second, Miller and Wallis embezzled approximately $653,000 from the campaign account of Senator Saslaw. From June 2013 to September 2014, Wallis served as the treasurer of the Saslaw for State Senate campaign. During that time, Wallis issued over 70 fraudulent checks from the Saslaw for State Senate campaign bank account, which totaled approximately $653,000. All of the checks were issued without the knowledge or permission of Senator Saslaw or his campaign staff, and were ultimately deposited into accounts that were controlled by Miller or Wallis.

Third, Miller and Wallis misappropriated funds from an autism organization, which Miller co-founded and for which Wallis served as the Executive Director. The organization, known as The Community College Consortium on Autism and Intellectual Disabilities (CCCAID), claimed to provide assistance to community colleges to develop programs for individuals with autism and other intellectual disabilities. Between April 2010 and April 2013, community colleges located around the country and an individual donated approximately $783,000 to CCCAID. The funds contributed to CCCAID were supposed to be used to further the mission of the organization and not to enrich Miller or Wallis. Despite these restrictions, from 2011 through 2014, Miller and Wallis embezzled over $600,000 from CCCAID’s bank account and used the money to pay their own personal expenses.

Miller and Wallis laundered the proceeds of their crimes through multiple bank accounts and ultimately spent the funds on lavish personal expenses, including mortgage payments on a million-dollar home in Fairfax, renovations to an oceanfront property owned by Miller in Bethany Beach, Delaware, dues payments to the Country Club of Fairfax, and travel on private aircraft from Manassas to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a family vacation at a luxury oceanfront resort.

Miller’s co-conspirator and wife, Linda Diane Wallis, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 56 months in prison on Mar. 18, 2016.

Miller faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison on each of ten counts of conviction when sentenced on Jan. 24, 2020. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Timothy M. Dunham, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III accepted the verdict. Assistants U.S. Uzo E. Asonye and Samantha P. Bateman are prosecuting the case.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/10/the-virginia-state-bar-disciplinary-board-has-suspended-a-convicted-attorney.html

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/10/the-virginia-state-bar-disciplinary-board-has-suspended-a-convicted-attorney.html