Ken Bensinger Profile picture
May 13 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
NEW: the 6th Circuit has issued a letter in the Whitmer kidnap appeal strongly suggesting it's open to arguments that out-of-court statements excluded by the district judge as hearsay should have been admitted.

This could lead to a possible retrial for Barry Croft and Adam Fox. Image
Fox and Croft were convicted in August 2022 in a 2nd federal trial in the case (following a hung jury the prior April) and were given long sentences. They appealed & on May 2 made oral arguments before the circuit, which seemed particularly receptive to the hearsay issue.
In both federal trials, Judge Robert J. Jonker excluded much of the evidence defendants sought to admit on grounds that it represented out-of-court statements by individuals who were not testifying (such as FBI informant Stephen Robeson) and thus was inadmissable hearsay.
This letter, sent to defense counsel as well as prosecutor Nils Kessler, asks the lawyers to tell the court whether excluding the those statements was "harmful or harmless and why?" It also seeks citations detailing what was excluded, what was admitted, and what impact that had.
The court is giving counsel 2 weeks to answer its question. If the court finds that the excluded evidence should have been admitted AND that it was perjudicial to the defendants, the remedy would be a new (3rd) trial, this time with the exhibits included.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Ken Bensinger

Ken Bensinger Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kenbensinger

Aug 2
Steve Mnuchin called the $10 million loan Trump made to his campaign late in 2016 a "cash advance" that could be repaid over time, I reported w/ @kadiagoba a few years ago.

W/ the big @washingtonpost story on the Egypt connection out, worth a 2nd look

buzzfeednews.com/article/kenben…
@kadiagoba @washingtonpost Here's the story by @carolleonnig and @byaaroncdavis, describing how $10 million in cash was withdrawn from an Egyptian bank in Jan 2017. The account was held by a company with links to Egyptian intelligence. It's not known where that money went.

washingtonpost.com/investigations…
@kadiagoba @washingtonpost @CarolLeonnig @byaaroncdavis I wrote in Oct 2020: "Nothing is known about whether the $10 million loan — which the campaign however appears to have reported as a contribution — was ever repaid, who might have repaid it, and whether it would even be legal to do so." Image
Read 7 tweets
May 8
After being called "ethically compromised," the new law firm brought in to replace the firm brought in to replace the firm that wants to withdraw from representing the Trump Campaign fired back, calling the claims "salacious and entirely improper" Image
The firm, Schulman Bhattachary, had been recruited to represent Donald J. Trump for President Inc. (& 2 other defendants) on Monday in a pregnancy discrimination suit brought by AJ Delgado in 2019. Backstory here

On Tuesday, Delgado called the firm "ethically compromised, to put it lightly," pointing to the fact that the firm's founding partner is currently under federal indictment for allegedly defrauding Somalia of $12.5 million. She asked that the substitution of counsel be denied.
Image
Image
Read 9 tweets
May 3
NEW: the Trump campaign has just moved to substitute its attorneys in a long-running discrimination case with lawyers from Harmeet Dhillon's law firm. The switch appears to be a tactic to circumvent the court's denial, yesterday, of the current law firm's request to withdraw. Image
The current firm, LaRocca Hornik, had sought permission to dump the case citing an "irreparable breakdown" with the client just as it faced a deadline to discover all gender discrimination complaints from the 2020 presidential campaign. Image
Yesterday, the magistrate, Katharine Parker, denied the request, saying the reasons given (ex parte) were "insufficient." But she left open a little loophole in her order: "this order does not preclude defendants from moving to substitute counsel." Image
Read 7 tweets
May 2
A federal court has just denied a law firm's request to withdraw from representing the Trump Campaign in a long-running discrimination suit.

The firm, LaRocca Hornik, had cited an "irreparable breakdown," but magistrate Katherine Parker said its explanation was "insufficient" Image
Judge Parker ordered the firm to "submit a more detailed declaration setting forth the basis for the deterioration in the attorney-client relationship" by May 7 - the same day that the campaign is obliged to hand over discovery is has been trying not to share. Image
She's also asking for declarations from the defendants: Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer & Donald J Trump for President Inc, raising the question of who, exactly, is the human who can sign a declaration for the 2016 & 2020 campaigns (2024 claims it has nothing to do with this case)
Read 4 tweets
Apr 24
NEW: an Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 people, including former state senator Kelli Ward and Turning Point official Tyler Bowyer on multiple counts for conspiring to keep Donald Trump in office after the 2020 election. Image
The 58 page indictment, handed up yesterday but just announced a few minutes ago by AG Mayes, includes 7 defendants whose names are redacted. Image
The indictment lists Trump as "unindicted co-conspiractor #1" Image
Read 6 tweets
Jun 12, 2023
Social medial platform Gab is seeking to raise $5M in an SEC regulated crowdfunding effort.

Per the offering, the site, known for its far right users, has 5.94m registered users - well more than double those on Truth Social. Image
Some interesting stuff in prospectus:

- estimates the global social media market worth $193B and will grow to $940B by 2026 (>4x growth)
- Gab says it's not just social media but seeks "to build a parallel internet and a parallel economy"
-that includes: social network, video hosting, payment processing, video conferencing & ad tech
-GabPay, for example, has a fee of 1.9% + $0.15 per transaction. Built b/c Gab got kicked off Paypal and Stripe
-GabPro is a subscription program costing $15/month or $500 lifetime
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(