[Reuters] A judge has decided to delay ruling on whether federal corruption charges against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey should be dismissed, clearing the way for the Democrat's trial to begin as scheduled on Sept. 6.
In an order dated Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Walls in Newark, New Jersey said he would rule after prosecutors present their case to a jury.
Menendez had argued last month that his bribery and fraud charges should be dismissed because they were not criminal, under a June 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.
That decision narrowed the definition of "official acts," and said routine political activities such as arranging meetings and reaching out to public officials did not qualify.
Walls wrote that whether Menendez's alleged wrongful activities as "official acts" was a "factual determination" to be made after prosecutors presented their evidence at trial.
"The allegations of the superseding indictment are not legally deficient to prevent their going to a jury," he added.
Lawyers for Menendez and his co-defendant, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors accused Menendez of accepting campaign donations and gifts, including a stay at a Caribbean villa and private jet flights, from Melgen in exchange for using his office to lobby for the doctor.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Menendez is expected to seek a third six-year term in 2018.
Several politicians have sought to have their corruption cases thrown out since the McDonnell decision.
Last month, a federal appeals court in New York cited the decision in overturning the corruption conviction of former New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Prosecutors plan to retry him.
The case is U.S. v. Menendez et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 15-cr-00155.
#1
Menendez had argued last month that his bribery and fraud charges should be dismissed because they were not criminal, under a June 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.
Arrgggh, don't ya hate this crap--"this" meaning the stuff in the bold print?
Yeah, but that was under the old lefty politicized Supreme Court; not the new "rule of law Constitutionally-based" court. Another good appointment and maybe law will begin to get righted in this country. Maybe even some day, we won't have two systems of justice--one for the elites and another for the plebeians.
[DAWN] FBI agents have searched one of the homes of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's former campaign chairman, Manafort's front man said Wednesday.
Spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement that FBI agents had obtained a warrant and searched one of Manafort's homes, but he would not say when the search occurred.
The Washington Post, which first reported the raid, said it occurred the morning of July 26 at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Va.
"Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well," Maloni said.
Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
They seized documents Manafort had already given the Senate comittie.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/10/2017 7:36 Comments ||
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/10/2017 10:47 Comments ||
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#7
John Q, it's most likely a fishing expedition to find something Manafort can be charged with unless he tells Mueller what Mueller wants to hear about Trump. "If you give me the man, I'll give you the crime".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/10/2017 14:58 Comments ||
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#8
That is exactly what I was thinking Deacon. They are trying to find something on snyone around Trump and promise them protection on return for allegations, no matter how false.
#3
Little clue.: The dead boy made his living giving your Watonka a good Blow. He was an a88rubb specialist. AND he was a Democrat of the Rainbow Flag.
#4
Buck, a one-time Republican, came to Southern California from Arizona several years ago and gained a reputation for making generous donations to the California and L.A. County Democratic Party and chair of Stonewall Democratic Club’s Political Affairs Committee. [...]
Chairman of Stonewall Democratic Club Political Affairs Committee? It's official, the Dems have institutionalized stonewalling.
[Politico] Nine months after the presidential election was decided, a federal judge is ordering the State Department to try again to find emails Hillary Clinton wrote about the Benghazi attack.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the State Department had not done enough to try to track down messages Clinton may have sent about the assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound on Sept. 11, 2012 -- an attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
In response to Freedom of Information Act requests, State searched the roughly 30,000 messages Clinton turned over to her former agency at its request in December 2014 after officials searching for Benghazi-related records realized she had used a personal email account during her four-year tenure as secretary.
State later searched tens of thousands of emails handed over to the agency by three former top aides to Clinton: Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan. Finally, State searched a collection of emails the FBI assembled when it was investigating Clinton's use of the private account and server.
#2
If one reads this judges bio, he appears to be very left-leaning. After law school, Judge Mehta worked in the San Francisco office of the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP before clerking for the Honorable Susan P. Graber of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Judge Mehta worked at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, Judge Mehta joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service as a staff attorney. Judge Mehta returned to Zuckerman Spaeder in 2007, where his practice focused on white-collar criminal defense, complex business disputes, and appellate advocacy.
Judge Mehta served on the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and is the former co-chair of the District of Columbia Bar’s Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee.
Even if he orders new searches for Clinton emails, can we trust him to carry out justice?
#4
I am old enough to remember the infighting between the Southern/Flyover Country "Centrist Bloc" that the Clintons mobilized and the Coastal City Poor/Elite "Manhattan/Cali Cocktail Club". So the division is there under the surface.
As soon the HillBill Cash Machine dries up they will turn on them like a pack of hyenas.
#5
The Clintons stepped on enough people on the rise up and to stay up that if they are on the slide down, and their blood is in the water, they will be devoured by their own side.
#7
#5 The Clintons stepped on enough people on the rise up and to stay up that if they are on the slide down, and their blood is in the water, they will be devoured by their own side.
#4 As soon the HillBill Cash Machine dries up they will turn on them like a pack of hyenas.
#8
State searched everything BUT their own servers.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/10/2017 11:08 Comments ||
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#9
Somewhere yesterday there was a rumor about a pleas deal for Hilda inferring that the Russkies had all or her emails including the ones about criminal behavior, and our side had them as intercepts/exploits. Pleading out before they are revealed is her only way of avoiding utter catastrophe. Anyone have corroboration to this Klein-based rumor
#13
The judge could also be an annoyed Bernie voter. Liberal/left does not necessarily mean the judge loves Mrs. Clinton -- if that were true, the party would not have deserted her for Barak Obama, who was still in his first year as senator when he started campaigning.
[DAILYCALLER] Officials with the perpetually insolvent reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Public School system laid off 356 teachers and nearly 600 school support staffers this week.
The teachers and other employees received their pink slips from the taxpayer-funded school district on Monday, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago’s elementary schools will have 240 fewer teachers this fall. Second City high schools will have 116 fewer teachers.
In addition to the 356 teachers, Chicago Public School officials also sacked 362 classroom aides and 221 employees who were security guards and special education aides.
Chicago Teachers Union spokeswoman Stacy Davis Gates blamed an ongoing budget battle between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner in particular for the layoffs.
"Ultimately, the mayor has to stop waiting on a man who allowed the entire state to go without a budget for two years," Gates told the Sun-Times. "If we’re waiting on Bruce Rauner to figure out how to equitably fund CPS, it’s not going to happen."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Since a lot of 'public' school teachers are horrible, it's addition by subtraction.
#2
What makes you think they laid off the 'horrible' teachers. Its a big-Union shop so they probably worked by senority and not merit. Horrible teachers which have been there for decades and are pro's at playing the system remain while better, newer, teachers with new idea are kicked to the curb. Of course the kids are the ones who suffer.
#6
Chicago is broke. Illinois is broke. I just didn't realize how broke. Heard last night that millionaires and the well-heeled are fleeing Illinois in huge numbers. There goes their tax base. They have serious long-range pension problems. Illinois will probably be the first state to default; California next? I just hope they are not lefties spreading their rubbish to other stable states. Even if they don't spread their rubbish to other states the problems of states like Illinois and California will likely become the problems of the people in other states.
#8
My sister, as a young teacher back in the 70's, started out at an inner city school. The older teachers dumped all of their ADHD problem children on the new teacher. As my sister explained:"One kid--place in the front row, two kids--put them in opposite corners, three or more kids--utter chaos as they feed off of each other..." She finished out her contract and got out of there.
#9
Yeah, the teachers who got laid off are probably the lucky ones. Now they can move to other parts of the country and get decent jobs in decent districts.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/10/2017 10:54 Comments ||
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#10
I don't think the Guv'nor should be the sole blame in this case:
The president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, brings home an impressive total salary of over $211,000 annually, according to the Sun-Times.
Lewis, who has been beaten badly in several political battles by Emanuel, seriously mulled her own bid to be mayor, using her union’s considerable local power to raise $2 million.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Reuters] A judge has decided to delay ruling on whether federal corruption charges against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey should be dismissed, clearing the way for the Democrat's trial to begin as scheduled on Sept. 6.
[DAWN] FBI agents have searched one of the homes of Paul Manafort, President 
Luckily, Janet Reno wasn't in charge of the Manafort raid. 
[Politico] Nine months after the presidential election was decided, a federal judge is ordering the State Department to try again to find emails Hillary Clinton wrote about the Benghazi attack.
