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Biden has promoted diversity but his Supreme Court lawyers are mostly white
Lawyers representing Harvard University leave the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington in October 2022, as the court hears cases relating to affirmative action in college admissions. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

July 24, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

When Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar defended college affirmative action programs before the Supreme Court in October, she cited the lack of diversity in a group of people the justices know well: the lawyers who argue before them.

Just two of 27 lawyers who appeared before the court over the next two weeks would be women, Prelogar told the justices — a statistic that she argued could lead women to wonder whether they have a shot at arguing before the Supreme Court.

Prelogar cited only the dearth of women and not of Black and Hispanic lawyers arguing before the court, but her message in a case dealing with race-conscious admissions programs was clear.

“When there is that kind of gross disparity in representation, it can matter and it’s common sense,” she told the justices.

Her argument didn’t sway the court’s conservative majority, which ruled last month that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s affirmative action programs were unconstitutional.

It did garner the attention of the court’s three liberal justices, who cited Prelogar’s remarks in a dissent, warning that “inequality in the pipeline to this institution, too, will deepen.”

But a similar lack of diversity to the one Prelogar pointed out in her argument has persisted for years in the solicitor general’s office, which is part of the Justice Department and represents the federal government before the Supreme Court.

Over the past dozen terms, nearly three-quarters of Supreme Court arguments made by lawyers in the office have been delivered by men, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

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July 29, 2023 by LAW

Who is Evan Corcoran, Trump lawyer with outsized role in documents case?

[1/2] Evan Corcoran, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, departs after testifying before a federal grand jury investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

June 11 (Reuters) – Evan Corcoran, a lawyer hired by Donald Trump to fend off a federal investigation into his handling of sensitive documents, is now a central figure in the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal case against the former president.

The shift from lawyer to potential witness in the case is a sharp turn for Corcoran. The former Republican congressman’s son is described by former colleagues as soft-spoken and diligent, known for his steady presence in the courtroom and an affinity for fly fishing.

Corcoran, 58, was not charged in the indictment unsealed on Friday. It presents him as a key Trump confidant who was deceived by the former president as he allegedly sought to stymie Justice Department efforts to recover classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving the White House in January 2021.

The 37-count indictment said Trump suggested to Corcoran that he falsely tell the Justice Department that he did not have any sensitive documents to turn over after a May 2022 subpoena.

“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump asked, according to an account by “Trump Attorney 1” detailed in the indictment.

The indictment does not identify Corcoran by name, but a source familiar with the situation told Reuters that he is the lawyer listed as “Trump Attorney 1” in the document.

In an unusual move, Corcoran, a former federal prosecutor, was forced to testify and turn over detailed notes to a grand jury weighing evidence in the Trump documents probe after a U.S. judge ruled he could

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June 12, 2023 by LAW

Trump lawyer must turn over documents on classified records, court rules

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate.

The ruling is a significant win for the Justice Department, which has focused for months not only on the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, but also on why Trump and his representatives resisted demands to return them to the government. It suggests the court has sided with prosecutors who have argued behind closed doors that Trump was using his legal representation to further a crime.

The order was reflected in a brief online notice by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is sealed and none of the parties in the dispute is mentioned by name.

But the details appear to correspond with a secret fight before a lower-court judge over whether Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran could be forced to provide documents or give grand jury testimony in the Justice Department special counsel probe into whether Trump mishandled top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran is regarded as relevant to the investigation in part because last year he drafted a statement to the Justice Department asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago in response to a subpoena. That claim proved untrue as FBI agents weeks later searched the home with a warrant and found roughly 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told investigators last fall that Corcoran had drafted the letter and asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records.

A Justice Department investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and his team of

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March 29, 2023 by LAW

Trump Lawyer Ordered to Turn Over Mar-a-Lago Case Documents

(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified records at his Florida estate.

The ruling is a significant win for the Justice Department, which has focused for months not only on the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago but also on why Trump and his representatives resisted demands to return them to the government. It suggests the court has sided with prosecutors who have argued behind closed doors that Trump was using his legal representation to further a crime.

The order was reflected in a brief online notice by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is sealed, and none of the parties in the dispute is mentioned by name.

But the details appear to correspond with a secret fight before a lower court judge over whether Trump lawyer M. Evan Corcoran could be forced to provide documents or give grand jury testimony in the Justice Department special counsel probe into whether Trump mishandled top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.

Corcoran is regarded as relevant to the investigation in part because last year he drafted a statement to the Justice Department asserting that a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago in response to a subpoena. That claim proved untrue as FBI agents weeks later searched the home with a warrant and found roughly 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, told investigators last fall that Corcoran had drafted the letter and asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian of Trump’s records.

A Justice Department investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and his team

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March 27, 2023 by LAW

Charges Against Trump Lawyer ‘Very Likely,’ Colleagues Warn Donald
US-politics-CRIME-TRUMP - Credit: AFP via Getty Images

US-politics-CRIME-TRUMP – Credit: AFP via Getty Images

Since early January, several of Donald Trump‘s close advisers, including some of his own lawyers, have met with the former president to deliver him the same stark warning. In at least three meetings this year, according to two sources familiar with the matter, legal and political counselors to Trump have urged him to dump Evan Corcoran, one of the ex-president’s top attorneys in the federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents.

Some of the former president’s lawyers have explicitly told Trump that, based on information they have privately reviewed, they believe the Department of Justice has a strong case against Corcoran, arguing charges — including potentially for obstruction of justice — are “very likely,” the sources said. These advisers have argued that if the Justice Department indeed does come for Corcoran, it’s imperative for Trump to distance himself to avoid being dragged into possible further legal jeopardy by his own attorney.

More from Rolling Stone

Trump, the sources say, sounds “receptive” to their perspective. However, as of mid-February, it appeared he wasn’t as receptive as they had hoped: Corcoran is still on Trump’s legal team.

Corcoran and representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment.

During a grand juryappearance in January, prosecutors reportedly asked Corcoran questions about events prior to last year’s FBI raid of Trump’s Florida residence of Mar-a-Lago, according to CNN. Corcoran drafted, and fellow Trump attorney Christina Bobb signed, a statement attesting to the government that a “diligent search” had been conducted of the Florida residence in May of 2022 — a statement which the subsequent discovery of classified material during the FBI search has been undermined . Corcoran reportedly declined to answer some questions based on his belief that

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February 22, 2023 by LAW

Ken Paxton corruption probe taken over by DOJ in DC

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Justice Department officials in Washington, DC, are taking over the corruption investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after the US attorney’s office in San Antonio was recused from the probe.

Prosecutors with the US attorney’s office had led the investigation since October 2020 into allegations of whether Paxton had abused his office, state prosecutors said.

The Washington-based investigators will now look into allegations made by Paxton’s former top deputies that the attorney general took bribes to benefit a political donor who also employed a woman with whom Paxton was alleged to have had an extramarital affair. The latest news was made public less than one week after Paxton agreed to apologize and pay $3.3 million in taxpayer money to settle a whistleblower lawsuit with four of the employees who accused him of crimes. The settlement still needs court and legislative approval.

State prosecutors Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer, who are handling a separate securities fraud case against Paxton, said in a statement that they were notified Thursday that the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas had been recused from the case by the Justice Department. The probe will now be handled by the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which prosecutes allegations of misconduct against local, state and federal elected officials. Wice and Schaffer referred all other questions to the Justice Department.

The Associated Press, which first reported the news, said the move was pushed by Paxton’s defense team. One of Paxton’s attorneys, Dan Cogdell, told the Associated Press he’d wanted the case out of the hands of prosecutors from the Western District because they had “an obvious conflict” but that he had not been

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February 21, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Justice Department taking over Texas AG Paxton corruption probe

DALLAS — Justice Department officials in Washington have taken over the corruption investigation into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, removing the case from the hands of the federal prosecutors in Texas who’d long been leading the probe.

The move was disclosed in a statement by state prosecutors handling their own case against Paxton. It’s the latest development in the federal investigation into the attorney general, who came under FBI scrutiny in 2020 after his own top deputies accused him of bribery and abusing his office to help one of his contributor campaigns, who also employed a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having had an extramarital affair.

The investigation of the three-term Republican is now being led by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which prosecutes allegations of official misconduct against elected leaders at the local, state and federal level. The US attorney’s office in Texas was recently recused from the complex case after working on it for years — an abrupt change that came within days of Paxton agreeing to apologize and pay $3.3 million in taxpayer money to four of the former staffers who reported him to the FBI.

State prosecutors working on a separate securities fraud case against Paxton — Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer — said in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday that they were notified of the move. They referred all questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.

It’s not known whether Paxton will face charges, although federal investigators in Texas who had worked the case believed there was sufficient evidence for an indictment, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing probe.

It was not immediately clear what prompted top Justice

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February 17, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Lawyer warns Hunter Biden critics of possible ‘litigation’

A lawyer for Hunter Biden is warning those involved in promulgating assertions about his infamous laptop computer that they could face unspecified litigation over their claims.

Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, who took over as Biden’s counsel in December, sent the “litigation hold” letters on Wednesday to 14 people allegedly linked to efforts to generate critical coverage of the 53-year-old son of President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the development.

Among those receiving the letters are a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani; Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello; and an attorney for John Paul Mac Isaac, a former Delaware computer repair shop owner who handled a laptop computer that Hunter Biden dropped off in 2019.

“You have made various statements and engaged in certain activities by your own admission, or that have been publicly reported in the media, concerning our client, Robert Hunter Biden,” Lowell wrote in one such letter obtained by POLITICO. “This letter … constitutes a notice that a litigation hold should be in effect for the preservation and retention of all records and documents related to Mr. Bidens.”

“It may be necessary to produce this material in litigation,” Lowell added, without elaborating on the type of litigation or the potential defendants.

A spokesperson for Lowell declined to comment on what litigation he was alluding to or to say whether Hunter Biden planned to file a suit in the near future.

An adviser to Giuliani dismissed the letters as an intimidation tactic.

“Instead of gossiping with reporters and leaking this stuff to the press, Abbe Lowell should focus on the facts because the facts don’t support his allegations,” the adviser, Ted Goodman, told POLITICO. “This is yet another failed attempt by Mr. Lowell to silence and intimidate Major Giuliani and Mr. Costello. That’s why

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February 17, 2023 by LAW

This assistant AG will square off in House GOP investigations

Sarah D.Wire

Washington — Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte has spent months preparing to face off against House Republicans as they unleash a gantlet of congressional investigations into the Justice Department.

As the head of the Office of Legislative Affairs — the Justice Department’s liaison to Capitol Hill — Uriarte will be thrust into a high-stakes but largely behind-the-scenes role in coming months as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, leads a sweeping examination of the Justice Department and FBI.

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs Carlos Uriarte. The office acts as the ambassador between the department and Capitol Hill.

In readying for the challenge, Uriarte has studied congressional investigations in recent decades and quizzed his predecessors on what went right and wrong in their role as ambassador to Congress.

“Frankly, I think it makes the department better when Congress is effectively doing oversight of the department, and so my view is, I want to be as cooperative as we can with them. I want to find those areas where we can work with Congress , because I know that it makes the department better when we do that, (and) are transparent, but I also recognize that there’s some ways and times where we can’t do that,” Uriate, a Bay Area native, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview.

House Republicans are planning multiple investigations, and have formed the select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, which they say is modeled after the 1975 Senate select committee led by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, that looked into intelligence agencies failures after the Watergate scandal.

The newly created subcommittee is expected to launch an inquiry into whether federal law enforcement and national security agencies sought to censor conservative views at all levels of government, from the presidency down, as well as in private life, on social media and in school board meetings .

The Justice Department is also

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February 5, 2023 by ATTORNEY

FBI finds no class. docs at Biden beach house

By Eric Tucker, Colleen Long and Zeke Miller | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Wednesday without finding any classified documents, the president’s personal attorney said. Agents did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice president for review.

The attorney, Bob Bauer, said FBI agents spent three and a half hours searching the house and that, “No documents with classified markings were found.”

He added, “Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as vice president.”

Wednesday’s search marked the third time in as many months that agents have scoured Biden’s property in a search of classified documents that he may have improperly held.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI on Wednesday searched President Joe Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, marking the third time in as many months that agents have scoured his property in search of classified documents that he may have improperly held.

The search, disclosed by Biden’s personal lawyer, is the latest discouraging moment for a president who has sought to contrast his sensitivity to rule-following with that of his predecessor Donald Trump, who faces a criminal investigation into his handling of classified documents. It shows that an investigation that had simmered quietly for weeks was continuing rather than fading away as Biden, who has said he was surprised by the records discovery, presumably hoped.

Though it was not immediately known whether any additional classified documents were found during Wednesday’s search, the fact the FBI undertook it on its own reflected the Justice Department’s determination to retrieve

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February 2, 2023 by LAW
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