Month: October 2016

File this post under “not surprised.” Elizabeth Herman, the chief deputy bar prosecutor in D.C. who dismissed my grievances against Hillary Clinton’s lawyers, had previously donated to President Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

On Friday, I received a letter from Ms. Herman explaining her refusal to investigate attorneys David Kendall, Cheryl Mills, and Heather Samuelson, and it prompted me to do a little digging about Ms. Herman.  According to Federal Election Commission records, she made two donations of $250 each to President Obama’s campaign during the 2008 election cycle, and donations of $200 and $250 during the 2012 election cycle. I think we can figure out which Presidential candidate she is supporting in 2016.

So what was Ms. Herman’s purported rationale for refusing to investigate Mrs. Clinton’s attorneys? Blind faith in the Obama Administration:

It appears that your concerns were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). The FBI and prosecutors declined to file charges against Ms. Clinton, her attorney, or those who allegedly assisted her in deleting the emails. We are satisfied that the misconduct alleged was properly reviewed.

That doesn’t pass the laugh test, so this morning I sent a letter to Ms. Herman’s boss, D.C. Disciplinary Counsel Wallace E. Shipp, Jr., and a letter to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility. Here’s the letter to Mr. Shipp: … Read more

This morning I appealed the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council’s order dismissing the misconduct case against retired U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth of Austin.  In a letter to an appellate committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, I also appealed the Fifth Circuit’s latest order concerning the sexual misconduct charges against retired U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith.

As my regular readers know, I submitted evidence that Judge Smith grabbed and groped a female deputy clerk in his chambers, then Judge Hudspeth covered up the crime while he was serving as chief judge.  At this point, my appeal has less to do with Judge Smith or Judge Hudspeth than with the Fifth Circuit’s propensity to sweep judicial misconduct under the rug.  I’ve reprinted the entire letter below: … Read more

Since last year, I’ve blogged about the dirty cops at the Montgomery County Auto Theft Task Force who launched a televised raid on an auto auction in Anderson, Texas, seizing 56 vehicles without first determining whether any of them were stolen. Rather than admit their mistake, task force agents and Grimes County District Attorney Tuck McLain tried to cover up the incident by framing my clients on organized crime charges.  Now the whole thing is blowing up in their faces.

Yesterday Grimes County District Judge Donald L. Kraemer ordered the cops to release all 56 vehicles because, as we’ve said all along, not one of them was stolen (nor were there any “paperwork problems” as task force agents had claimed). You may recall that task force commander Joe Sclider and his crew arrested Les Shipman, Jerry Williams, and Israel Curtis on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.  Yesterday all charges were formally dismissed against Mr. Curtis, while Mr. Shipman and Mr. Williams pleaded no contest to a Class C misdemeanor charge of selling cars without a license. A Class C misdemeanor is the legal equivalent of a speeding ticket, punishable only by a fine of not more than $500.

Mr. Curtis’s case is probably the most egregious and the most tragic.  As I first reported in February, Mr. Curtis is a professional auctioneer who was hired to sell the 56 cars, he had never met Mr. Williams before the morning of the auction, and he had only met Mr. Shipman a month earlier when he signed a contract to serve as the auctioneer.* Mr. Curtis will testify that Lt. Sclider said he was arrested because the task force needed a third person in order to file an organized crime charge. In other words, Mr. Curtis showed up to do his job and ended up in jail with his business and reputation destroyed, all because some dirty cop wanted to file an organized crime charge against someone else. Yeah, and you thought you lived in a civilized country. … Read more

According to a letter that I received today from Arkansas’s top bar prosecutor, Stark Ligon, his office is running into obstacles in its efforts to investigate my attorney misconduct complaint against Hillary Clinton for destroying emails and lying to Congress:

As part of our investigation, this office is in the process of attempting to obtain further documentation from various sources about the conduct you complain of by Ms. Clinton. The amount of materials is large. To some extent, our efforts to date in this area have met with various confidentiality policies and rules at different organizations that possess such information… For one, we do not yet possess any complete transcript of FBI Director Comey’s appearance before the congressional committee in July 2016, or any full FBI report on these matters. if one has been released since July 5, 2016. We also do not yet possess any full transcript of the October 22, 2015 hearing at which Ms. Clinton testified at length about the Benghazi matter.

It’s pretty easy to find video of the Comey and Clinton testimony on Google, as well as unofficial transcripts (see, e.g., here and here) produced by media organizations. Even so, I sent a letter to House Government Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte encouraging them to give Mr. Ligon everything he needs.

Last week I reported that most grievance committees are trying to delay or bury investigations into Mrs. Clinton and her lawyers. I disagree with some of the statements in today’s letter from Mr. Ligon, but I don’t have time to write about that. I’m not a trust fund kid, so I have to keep working the day job.

Retired U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth of Austin got away with it. To no one’s surprise, the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council in New Orleans shrugged off the evidence that Judge Hudspeth covered up the sexual misconduct of U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith, Jr. of Waco while Hudspeth was serving as the chief judge for the Western District of Texas.

Back in May, I reported that Judge Hudspeth quietly retired while he was under investigation, apparently in an attempt to avoid judicial discipline.  Today’s order from the Fifth Circuit seems to confirm that:

In the light of Judge Hudspeth’s retirement from office, the Judicial Council is no longer able to impose any sanction under 28 U.S.C. § 354(a)(2)(A) or (B). Moreover, even assuming the allegations of the complaint are true, the Council concludes that they would not warrant recommending the extraordinary step of attempting the impeachment of a judge who is no longer on the bench.

Even assuming the allegations of my complaint are true? The order explains that the judicial council had held my complaint against Judge Hudspeth in abeyence (i.e., in limbo) while it investigated Judge Smith.  I happen to know, however, that judicial investigators did investigate matters related to Judge Hudspeth, but the judicial council apparently sat on the findings in order to give Judge Hudspeth an opportunity to retire quietly. That allowed the judicial council to shrug its shoulders and say, “Aw shucks, there’s nothing we can do.” … Read more

Donald Trump is right: the system is rigged. Bar prosecutors in Arkansas, D.C. and Maryland have violated their own rules and statutes in order to delay or prevent investigations about whether Hillary Clinton and her lawyers destroyed evidence (although bar prosecutors in New York might buck that trend). In related news, I’ve filed bar grievances against FBI Director James Comey and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (more on that below).

This morning I received an email from D.C. Deputy Disciplinary Counsel Elizabeth A. Herman informing me that her office would not act on my complaint that Clinton attorneys David Kendall, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, as well as Mrs. Clinton herself, destroyed emails from Mrs. Clinton’s private email server.  Normally, when a complaint states a facially-valid violation of the professional rules, Ms. Herman’s office asks the respondent attorney to respond in writing. In this case, Ms. Herman’s office will not even investigate my complaint, much less prosecute the offenders.

This seems to be a trend. Previously, the deputy director of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Office of Professional Conduct, Michael Harmon, informed me that before deciding whether to file charges against Mrs. Clinton, he wanted to await the Justice Department’s decision on whether to prosecute her for lying to Congress. That’s just an excuse to delay action until after the Presidential election. As I told Mr. Harmon’s boss in a letter on Monday, “I think we both know that Mrs. Clinton has a better chance of being struck by lightning than prosecuted by the Obama Administration.” … Read more