Last Week In Legal: All Hell Broke Loose

The Hush Money case is dying, the Mar-A-Lago case blew up, DC J6 is still on hold for a SCOTUS ruling, and GA Appeals Court picks up the Fani Disqualification case. Teflon Don is back, baby!

Hunter Biden Legal Troubles

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed Hunter’s attempt to have his gun charges tossed out. This means that the case will proceed to trial on June 3, 2024.

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Business Fraud Case

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct is investigating Judge Engoron after a New York real estate lawyer claimed he spoke to Engoron about the case before the verdict was issued. Adam Bailey, who says he is “no fan of Trump,” told NBC New York that when he spotted the judge in the courthouse, he went over and talked to him about the case. Bailey said he told Engoron that the fraud statute was not supposed to be used to shut down a major company, and urged the judge to do the right thing. "He had a lot of questions, you know, about certain cases. We went over it," Bailey claimed. In an attempt to clean up the mess he made, Bailey said in a second interview, "We didn't even mention the word Donald Trump." But when asked if he thought Judge Engoron understood him to be talking about the Trump case, he said, "Well, obviously, we weren't talking about the Mets."

The New York State Rules of Judicial Conduct state that "a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers." The rules only allow an exception to "obtain the advice of a disinterested expert," if a judge gives notice to the parties involved and gives them the opportunity to respond.

Nothing will likely happen to Judge Engoron over this, because he clearly ignored Bailey’s advice not to threaten the Trump Org’s business operations. Hopefully, the Judicial Conduct Commission will also take a look at Engoron’s relationship with his clerk and their antics in the courtroom, but don’t hold your breath.

Indictment 1: The Stormy Daniels Case

As a reminder, this case is supposed to be about falsified business records. But, because the statute of limitations had run out on those charges, DA Alvin Bragg is trying to shoehorn the business records into some sort of election interference charge. The entire case hinges on the testimony of a serial liar who has perjured himself in court on multiple occasions. Jonathan Turley has a piece that should be required reading as we barrel toward Cohen’s testimony.

However, the prosecution has a few more witnesses to call before they get to Cohen. So Monday opened with testimony from Jeffery McConney, the Trump Org Controller, aka the top guy in charge of the whole accounting department. McConney said that his department handled the accounting for every Trump entity and even Donald’s personal accounts. When asked about Cohen’s role in the company, McConney said, "Uh, he said he was a lawyer."