As you may recall, United States Senator Orrin Hatch held up LICENSED TO LIE to then Attorney General Loretta Lynch and encouraged her to read it and “clean up the Department.”  Making good on his own pledge to work for criminal justice reform, today he made an important speech on the floor of the Senate, echoing what we and Judge Kozinski and Bernard Kerik and others have been saying for the last year in an ever-increasing chorus.  The time for criminal justice reform is NOW, and it must include making sure that people are convicted only when they have criminal intent.

This was the focus of our most recent article, written with Bernard Kerik, Retired NYPD Commissioner, explaining that Criminal Justice Reform Isn’t Soft on Crime,in the New York Observer.  Please share it with your friends. Also, be sure to read Mr. Kerik’s new book FROM JAILER TO JAILED.  It’s a big wake-up call that dovetails perfectly with the lessons in LICENSED TO LIE.

Here’s Senator Hatch today on the floor of the Senate.  Please watch his full speech-it’s very informative.

In a strongly worded and remarkable opinion, Gate Guard Services v. Thomas Perez, 14-40585-CV0, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, today ordered sanctions against the Department of Labor (DOL) for government misconduct, and remanded the case to the district court for an award to the private litigant of attorney’s fees because of the government’s “bad faith.”  Writing for the unanimous Panel which included Judge Catharina Haynes and District Judge Marcia Crone, sitting by designation, Judge Edith Jones began:

It is often better to acknowledge an obvious mistake than defend it. When the government acknowledges mistakes, it preserves public trust and confidence. It can start to repair the damage done by erroneously, indeed vindictively, attempting to sanction an innocent business.  Rather than acknowledge its mistakes, however, the government here chose to defend the indefensible in an indefensible manner. As a result, we impose attorneys’ fees in favor of Gate Guard as a sanction for the government’s bad faith. 28 U.S.C. § 2412(b).

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The creativity of prosecutors who know no bounds never ceases to amaze me.  Finally, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the New Orleans Advocate, we have access to a 150 plus page report of the Office of Professional Responsibility within the Department of Justice addressing the astonishing conduct of former  senior federal prosecutors in New Orleans in several high profile cases-including the Danzinger Bridge case and the River Birch matter.

Even though it is heavily redacted, the report excoriates former First Assistant United States Attorney Jan Mann and former AUSA Sal Perricone, both of whom resigned in disgrace, after a target of their investigation sued them for posting slanderous comments online using aliases.  Compounding their misconduct, Ms. Mann even lied to her superiors and judges about it all.

The Louisiana Bar has done nothing yet-it’s only been three years!  For the details, please see my article in the New York Observer.

Meanwhile, LICENSED TO LIE: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice repeatedly hits #1 Amazon best-seller in Law/Ethics, Judicial Branch, and True Crime/White Collar.

It has been mentioned recently in the National Law Journal, in a New Jersey paper discussing the indictment of Senator Menendez, and in the Huffington Post discussing corruption in Orange County California.

The Los Angeles Time just printed this editorial, harkening back to the case in the Ninth Circuit  on which we broke the news for the New York Observer.  The Los Angeles Times recognition of the case and the problem will shine additional light on this crucial issue.

Ninth Circuit Judges Kozinski, Fletcher and Wardlaw clearly made an impression on the California Attorney General.  The case has been resolved without the need for an opinion by the court.  The oral argument is worth watching.  The fun starts at about 16 minutes into the tape.

My most recent article for the New York Observer is here.  It is the first in a series of at least three articles on a case against Bradley Stinn-a young father of three who has served six years in prison with six more to go on trumped up fraud charges.  The only money or property that he stole?  His salary and bonus one year.  The case exemplifies everything wrong in our justice system now.   The case  was prosecuted in Loretta Lynch’s office, and she’s turned a blind eye to the misconduct at every level.

See a panel of serious Ninth Circuit Judges in action!  Watch this video, beginning at the 16 minute mark, and be sure to watch through to the end.  This case involves a clear violation of the Supreme Court’s decision in Napue.  This case presents conduct even worse than a Brady violation.  In this case, the prosecution infected the case with false testimony-including by a prosecutor himself-over benefits given to a “cooperator” or “snitch.”

Deputy District Attorney Robert Spira was the prosecuting attorney in Melendez’s case.  Melendez became a “snitch.” Prosecutor Spira took the stand at Baca’s trial to discuss Melendez’s plea deal. He testified that Melendez did not get any consideration in exchange for testifying against Baca. The California Court of Appeal found this to be untrue.  Deputy District Attorney Paul Vinegrad was the prosecuting attorney in Baca’s case who put on Melendez and Spira as witnesses

A magistrate and the California Court of Appeal found that the California deputy district attorney Spira lied under oath, testifying against a criminal defendant and in support of a lying “jailhouse snitch” who was placed on the witness stand in apparent subornation of perjury.  Making matters worse, the California Attorney General fought “tooth and nail” to keep the transcript from the California Court of Appeal.

The Ninth Circuit is going to do something about it, including naming the names-if the Arizona Attorney General does not-and the court strongly suggests that the lying prosecutor be prosecuted himself for perjury.

Judges Kozinski, Fletcher and Wardlaw have long been on our Wall of Fame for standing up for the Constitution and the Brady Rule.

For a new twist on misconduct by Justice Department lawyers, take a look at the “Moonlight Fire” case and the recent developments in the state and federal courts in California.  To catch you up, read my articles on the New York Observer and on Fox News.

A former Assistant United States Attorney blew the whistle on the possible suppression and/or distortion of evidence by state and federal fire investigators and the attorneys for each who pursued a massive multi-million dollar action to recover “costs” and penalties from Sierra Pacific-one of the largest land-holders in the country.  Sierra Pacific, upon discovering new evidence, is turning the tables on the Department of Justice.  A state court judge has awarded $32 million against CAL fire-the state investigative agency.  Now the feds are back in court and on the ropes to defend their actions.

Sierra Pacific is due to file an additional brief on January 15, 2015,  to explain to senior federal District Judge Shubb how the government has committed what amounts to a fraud on the court.  The government has 30 days to respond, and then Sierra Pacific has until March 9 to reply.

Judge Shubb largely ignored the Department’s outrageous attempt to knock all of the defense lawyers off of the case because they had read the affidavit and allegations of government attorney misconduct.   He vacated an order for a hearing on the government’s motion.  In a fair and measured approach, he wants to determine first that Sierra Pacific can seek to set aside the original settlement under the Federal Rule 60(d)(3).  Stay tuned. . . .

Article corrected for due date of briefing @ 1:10 p.m. on 12/5 and further editted

Two really good articles in The Economist on the Overcriminalization of American Business.  See here and here, and then my article on the New York Observer-the WAR ON WALL STREET-that explains why.  The Department of Justice is extorting money from our corporations and redistributing the wealth to those of the President’s choosing.

In case you missed it, I broke the news on the destruction of Lois Lerner’s Blackberry-after Congress began its inquiry!  I’ve been monitoring the case filed by Judicial Watch since I learned from a friend that Judge Emmet Sullivan, one of the heroes in Licensed to Lie, was presiding over the case.  See articles here and here to fill you in on the developments there.

IRS Shocker:Filing Reveals Lerner Blackberry Destroyed http://t.co/WyvCTIENPj via @NewYorkObserver @NewsMax @TeamCavuto @DavidLat @PeterRoff

— Sidney Powell (@SidneyPowell1) August 25, 2014

Then everyone picked it up.  Among countless others, Greta put it on her WIRE and tweeted it, Steve Forbes tweeted it, and it became the FOX NEWS lead story, which quoted me and LICENSED TO LIE: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice.

Lois Lerner email story just keeps getting more and more suspicious. http://t.co/yg6YIWsDF4 | http://t.co/cUPrcBpUhi

— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) August 26, 2014

IRS destoyed Lois Lerner blackberry AFTER Congressional investigation started; had all her emails on http://t.co/zPExRiiUk8

— Greta Van Susteren (@gretawire) August 26, 2014

To see my thoughts on the ridiculous indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry, read this article.  Stay tuned at the New York Observer for fast-breaking developments in the IRS email scandal and Judge Sullivan works to get to the bottom of it.

And by the way, thanks to a tip from a reader this week, we learned that Matthew Friedrich, former Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice who is exposed in Licensed to Lie for his significant roles in the wrongful conviction of four Merrill Lynch executives and then United States Senator Ted Stevens, has left the Freshfields law firm without so much as a whisper and fallen off the grid.

C-Span continues to broadcast our CATO Institute presentation, the video is one of the most highly watched on their website,  and the book continues to rank highly on Amazon.

Here’s the most recent reader review, by Peggy L. Jennings, on Amazon:

Wow, this is an amazing revelation of what our criminal justice system has come to! Very disturbing to think that we can count on fairness from our courts! The injustice of these cases blows me away. With all that is going on in our country I thought people would have a chance in a court of law but the lying and cheating done by the higher ups in our “Department of Justice” is both disappointing and disturbing. Not only are they “Licensed to Lie” but then they are promoted to positions of importance where they can continue to corrupt our justice system. I am disgusted and frightened about the direction of our country that something like this could even happen and then be brushed under the carpet because they don’t want to upset their little apple cart! I can’t imagine the amount of tax dollars that went into the pockets of these attorneys and innocent parties being dragged through the courts for years with all these legal expenses. This is a very SCARY thought that someone can be put through something like this and it goes on forever. Something has to happen to change our justice system and all the $$$$$ that lawyers line their pockets with while innocent people and their families suffer. This is certainly not “fairness”.

In an exhaustive indictment of government discovery and Brady/Giglio gamesmanship, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Judge Catherine Friend Easterly [great judicial name], recently ordered a new trial for DC Inmate Carl Morton in United States v. Vaughn et al. Morton and co-defendant Alonzo Vaughn were convicted for (1) aggravated assault and (2) assault on a law enforcement officer in connection with an incident at the D.C. Jail in which a group of men attacked a fellow inmate and a corrections officer who came to that inmate’s aid. Unbeknownst to either defendant, the government’s, Assistant United States Attorneys Mary Chris Dobbie and Reagan Taylor, primary and strongest identifying witness, presented to the jury as “Officer” Angelo Childs, had recently been adjudged to have made demonstrably false allegations regarding an earlier inmate assault. “Officer” Childs was subsequently demoted from Lieutenant to Sergeant as a result of that false testimony.

In a Department of Corrections Office of Internal Affairs (OIA) “Final Report,” Childs and other officers were shown to have falsely reported a separate incident regarding alleged inmate assault.  In the relevant portion of this report — which the government suppressed — the investigator concluded that Childs’ report was, in fact,  contradicted by video footage taken of the scene. Instead of turning the entirety of the report over to defendants, or to the court, the government prosecutors strategically excised the damning portions and submitted only the innocuous and inconclusive portions (sound familiar):

the government submitted to the trial court ex parte what it said was the OIA Final Report, but in fact was only the first five pages of the ten-page report (and included none of the documents in the appendix, 76 pages in all). The first five pages of the OIA Final Report contain “background” information, investigative notes, and a full reproduction of Officer Childs‟s account of an inmate assault in his Incident Report without any indication that that account was being questioned; the findings adverse to Officer Childs begin on the sixth page.

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In an unusual and virtually unprecedented opinion,  US v. Garner et al, No. 2_11_CR_00038 (N.D. Miss. July 15, 2014), Judge Neal Biggers of the Northern District of Mississippi sua sponte acknowledged his prior elision of arguments that the government, Assistant United States Attorneys’ Clayton A. Dabbs and Robert J. Mims, engaged in constitutional and statutory violations at trial, and sua sponte granted defendants a new trial for Brady violations.

After the trial, which alleged federal crimes arising from a bribe and kickback scheme involving a community hospital, Judge Biggers entered judgments of acquittal and alternately motions for new trials for defendants Earnest Levi Garner and Raymond Lamont Shoemaker. On the government’s appeal, the Fifth Circuit reversed, reinstated the jury verdicts of guilty and remanded for resentencing. On remand, the district court noted that its prior grant of the alternate new trial motions did not address defendants’ claims of Brady violations but instead relied on a separate legal issue related to “agency” (as to the hospital) and the related jury instructions. Nor did the government address the Brady issues in its appeal to the Fifth Circuit, “ostensibly since the [] court had not ruled on them.” Because the court “did not grant the defendants a ruling on the Brady claims,” and despite the peculiar procedural posture, the court determined that “to refuse to rule on these constitutional claims now would be a denial of due process and contrary to the interests of justice.”

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In the last two weeks, the New York Observer has published four articles, all of which have been in the TOP TRENDING on the site since they were published.

Three have been picked up by Drudge; by Investor’s Business Daily, and the last even by Breitbart, which “borrowed” the title from the Observer and most of my article.

Here are the links and please forward them to all of your friends.  We are all starved for honesty in government-regardless of the party in power. We must demand better, and now Judge Emmet Sullivan may help us get to some of the truth.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’s MUSES: Obama and Prosecutorial Misconduct

ERIC HOLDER PROTECTS CORRUPT PROSECUTORS

WAR ON WALL STREET

And the MOST RECENT/BREAKING NEWS, which has gone viral with more than 7,000 facebook posts alone, MEET EMMET SULLIVAN -the federal judge in DC who is the HERO in my book, Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, already an Amazon BestSeller.  It is available on Kindle and on Nook for only $8.49, and in a terrific hardback online and in stores.

Judge Sullivan previously appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Department of Justice and the prosecutors who hid evidence that was devastating to its ginned-up case against former United States Senator Ted Stevens. He has set a special hearing on the case filed by Judicial Watch for JULY 10.  For the full story on Emmet Sullivan, read LICENSED TO LIE.  There is reason to hope that IRS has met its match!