Tag: prosecutor

The Trump campaign was offered “political synergy” from Russia as early as 2015, according to evidence provided by the president’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. In one of two sentencing documents filed by prosecutors in relation to Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to two separate charges, prosecutors revealed the 52-year-old said he was contacted by someone claiming to represent the Russian authorities. “In or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level’,” said a filing by special counsel Robert Mueller. The document filed by Mr Mueller suggests that Cohen has provided substantial information to the special counsel’s office. Mr Mueller said Cohen went to “significant lengths” to assist their investigation. Mr Mueller said Mr Cohen had assisted in four specific areas – providing information about his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign, providing information concerning certain “discrete Russia-related matters” core to the investigation, giving information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during the 2017–2018 time period and describing the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional enquiries. In a separate document filed by investigators looking into Cohen’s payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels and other women on the eve of the 2016 election, prosecutors said the lawyer had not been cooperative and deserved to serve a “substantial amount of jail time”. “Cohen did provide information to law enforcement, including information that assisted the special counsel’s office (SCO) in ongoing matters, as described in the SCO’s memorandum to the court, and the office agrees that this is a factor to be considered by the court,” wrote prosecutors in New York. “But Cohen’s description of those efforts is overstated in some respects and incomplete in others. For these reasons, the office respectfully requests that this court impose a substantial term of imprisonment.” Trump, who has called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt“ and repeatedly denied wrongdoing, said earlier this week that Cohen had lied about Trump’s business dealings in Russia to get reduced jail time.

Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, a former businessman who fled to Israel and joined the Knesset to escape a French jail sentence, died early Friday morning. Flatto-Sharon had been hospitalized near Tel Aviv since September with an infection, according to Hebrew-language media reports. Born in Poland in 1930, Flatto-Sharon escaped the Holocaust and eventually became a successful industrialist. Free Sign Up In 1977, with France attempting to have him extradited to serve a jail sentence, Flatto-Sharon started a one-man political party and managed to win a spot in the Knesset, gaining parliamentary immunity. The affair, for which he became famous, is sometimes cited as a reason for higher electoral thresholds in the Knesset. He was unable to enter the Knesset in subsequent tries and was later convicted for buying votes during the 1977 election and sentenced to prison. After leaving politics, Flatto-Sharon continued as a successful businessman and philanthropist in Israel, though legal woes dogged him throughout. In 1992 he asked a court in Tel Aviv to declare him penniless, apparently to escape a $35 million judgement awarded the French Companie Parisienne de Participation, which sued him in Israel. He later settled on a smaller amount with the company. In 2000, he served several months in an Israeli prison for a French graft conviction, according to Ynet.

No reasonable prosecutor would bring sexual assault charges against Kavanaugh based on the public evidence, prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, whom Republicans hired to ask the questions during last week's Senate hearing, said in a memo to senators. » Subscribe to MSNBC:…

Fox News anchor says Mitchell's questioning of Ford seemed 'pointless in a lot of places.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one…

Senate Judiciary Committee hired longtime prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to assist Republican lawmakers in questioning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well…

Ingraham: America needs journalists we can trust. As it stands now we not only have to worry about the objectivity of our news sources, we have to worry about their sources as well. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour…

Former DOJ lawyer, Elyse Goldweber, who deposed Trump in a key DOJ suit over housing discrimination in 1973, which resulted in Trump being forced to rent to tenants regardless of race, joins Ari Melber exclusively. Goldweber notes that Trump’s attacks…

President Trump reportedly tells Reuters that he could “run” the Mueller probe if he wanted to, as The New York Times reveals President Trump’s lawyer, Don McGahn, spoke with Mueller’s team for 30 hours and Rudy Giuliani tells NBC News…

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance talks to Chuck about the Manafort trial and what it means for Mueller. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and informed…

Your editorial on July 7, “Let Orange County’s Law Enforcement Watchdog Work,” made critical points urging the Board of Supervisors to reverse a recent vote to have the Office of Independent Review focus on its originally purpose — to watchdog our county’s criminal justice agencies. The public has a right to know that board politics is not only hindering, but quashing critical oversight of the county’s biggest law enforcement agencies — the Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office. Nothing has changed in my quest to provide proper oversight since, as board chairman is 2015, I fought and won the expansion of the OIR to all county agencies involved in criminal justice. It had become clear that Orange County needed a watchdog over the Sheriff’s Department after the murder of John Chamberlain in our county jail in 2010. Since the OIR expansion in 2015, the county has had a jail escape by three hard-core felons who took advantage of a failure to routinely inspect the jail plumbing tunnels; a Grand Jury report detailing avoidable jail deaths; and the most egregious of all: misuse of jail informants which caused a judge to remove the District Attorney from the county’s worst mass murder case. I voted to continue the OIR, but stated on the open record that the board was ignoring these critical issues. I completely agree with the Register Editorial Board that the Board of Supervisors should reverse its vote and direct the OIR to do its job focusing on criminal justice. As your District Attorney I will ensure that the public is protected and tough questions answered. As the Register Editorial Board points out, we deserve better. He is a candidate for Orange County District Attorney.