Hunter Biden's Suit May Turn On If A Hard Drive Is A Computer

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden's lawsuit against a former Trump White House aide for accessing data allegedly taken from a copy of Biden's laptop said Thursday that case may hinge on if a hard drive copy qualifies as a "computer" under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

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Menendez Bribery Case Criminalizes Gifts, Jury Told

By Carla Baranauckas

Prosecutors are trying to criminalize friendship, gifts and advocacy, the counsel for one of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's co-defendants said Thursday in an opening statement in the corruption trial in Manhattan federal court.

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'That Is A Lie!' Trump Atty Assails Cohen In Fraud Trial Cross

By Frank G. Runyeon and Stewart Bishop

Donald Trump's lawyer lashed out at central prosecution witness Michael Cohen on Thursday during a second day of cross-examination in New York state's criminal fraud case, attacking his credibility and key testimony linking Trump to crimes.

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Coverage Recap: Day 14 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

By Stewart Bishop

Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from Thursday, day 14 of the trial.

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Biden Admin Proposes To Loosen Restrictions On Marijuana

By Sam Reisman

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that his administration has formally recommended relaxing restrictions on marijuana, marking the most significant federal policy shift on cannabis since the drug was criminalized more than 50 years ago.

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Democrats Prod Justice Thomas on RV Loan, Tax Treatment

By Anna Scott Farrell

Two Senate Democrats have asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' attorney to respond to what they called a failure to answer their questions about the justice's $267,000 loan from a healthcare industry executive to finance a luxury recreational vehicle, saying the loan treatment could have violated federal tax laws.

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Carhartt Heiress's Atty Stole Millions, Jury Told

By Danielle Ferguson

A jury trial kicked off Thursday in a case against a Michigan lawyer accused of embezzling millions of dollars from trusts belonging to the granddaughter of Carhartt Inc.'s founder, with one of her financial managers testifying that the attorney made loans to himself without permission.

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Trial Stream Failure Doesn't Violate Rights, Colo. Panel Finds

By Cara Salvatore

A Colorado state appeals court ruled Thursday that a trial that was livestreamed with inadequate audio and video did not violate the defendant's right to a public trial because there were still seats available in an open courtroom.

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Bitcoin ATM Operator Ran Illegal Money Transmitter, Jury Says

By Aislinn Keely

A New York state jury has convicted the operator of a network of bitcoin kiosks that allegedly catered to criminal activity of operating an unlicensed money transmitter and tax fraud, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said Thursday.

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US Must Produce Emails Between IRS Managers, Docs Leaker

By Anna Scott Farrell

The government must produce emails between Internal Revenue Service managers and a former contractor who leaked thousands of wealthy people's tax returns, a Florida federal judge has ordered, saying the materials are relevant to a billionaire's case accusing the agency of responsibility for the leak.

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'Christian' Co. Scammed WWII Vet Out Of $300K, Feds Say

By David Minsky

Five members of an Alabama-based self-described Christian company were indicted on conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from a scheme in which they allegedly took at least $300,000 from a World War II veteran after telling him the money would pay for a vocational school.

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Clean Energy CEO Gets 6 Years For Forgeries Netting $1.1M

By Matthew Santoni

The CEO of a Pennsylvania clean energy company was sentenced to six years in federal prison for defrauding investors out of $1.1 million and falsifying documents to cover his tracks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

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Ex-Pharma Exec Cops To Contempt For Barred Finance Work

By Brian Dowling

A Boston federal judge on Thursday accepted a former pharmaceutical company executive's guilty plea to a criminal contempt charge for using an alias to work on a finance venture despite a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ban.

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Trump Says 1890 Ruling Can't Be 'Pigeonholed' By Ga. DA

By Chart Riggall

Former President Donald Trump has renewed his bid to have two of his Georgia election interference charges dropped under an 1890 U.S. Supreme Court case, arguing prosecutors are trying to "improperly pigeonhole" the ruling as irrelevant to his criminal case.

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Ex-Connecticut Budget Official Denies 22 Corruption Charges

By Aaron Keller

A former Connecticut state budget official and beleaguered attorney who oversaw millions in state school construction funds pled not guilty on Thursday to a host of corruption charges, including that he coerced contractors into paying him kickbacks.

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2nd Circ. Backs Win For Big Banks In Forex-Rigging Suit

By Elliot Weld

The Second Circuit on Thursday backed a ruling in favor of a group of large banks accused of conspiring to manipulate the foreign currency exchange market in euros and dollars, agreeing with a lower court that the plaintiffs hadn't made qualifying transactions or shown how prices were distorted.

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Ex-Credit Union Worker Gets 3 Years After Copping To Fraud

By Emilie Ruscoe

A former employee of Indiana-based Financial Center First Credit Union employee faces nearly three years in prison and owes over $2 million after pleading guilty to financial institution fraud in connection with claims he received $100,000 in kickbacks after using his position to help unidentified accomplices siphon millions away from account holders.

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Mass. Business Owner Charged In $18M Pandemic Loan Scam

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts man was arrested Wednesday on federal charges that he fraudulently sought $18 million in pandemic relief loans for multiple companies and used some of the proceeds to purchase a luxury condo while wiring other funds overseas.

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Ga. Judge Cites 'Exemplary Life' In 3-Year PPP Fraud Sentence

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia woman convicted earlier this year of helping to launder the proceeds of a pandemic loan fraud scheme was hit with a three-year prison sentence on Thursday by a federal judge, who noted the woman has otherwise led an "exemplary life," warranting a sentence lower than what prosecutors had sought.

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No Double Jeopardy In Philly Execs' Embezzlement Case

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Two former Philadelphia nonprofit executives convicted for an embezzlement scheme weren't subject to double jeopardy when a judge rescheduled trial after several jurors left, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday, reasoning that the court had no other choice.

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11th Circ. Denies Ayahuasca Church's Bid For Rehearing

By Jonathan Capriel

The Eleventh Circuit has refused to grant an en banc rehearing to a Florida church that wanted to use ayahuasca as a sacrament, leaving in place an appellate ruling that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration properly denied a religious exemption from federal law against the psychedelic substance.

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Ex-Pistons Guard Denied Bail For Healthcare Scheme Appeal

By Elliot Weld

A former Detroit Pistons point guard was denied bail Thursday while he appeals his conviction and 18-month prison sentence in a case where prosecutors accused ex-players of defrauding the NBA's healthcare plan.

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Ointment Scheme Conned Gov't Out Of Millions, Fla. Suit Says

By David Minsky

Two Florida brothers and one of their former employees are accused of running a years-long fraudulent scheme billing government healthcare programs and receiving millions of dollars after paying kickbacks to generate prescriptions for ointments that were not needed, according to a False Claims Act lawsuit.

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Conn. Medicaid Fraudster Gets 27 Months Over $1.6M Scheme

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut psychologist who pled guilty to filing $1.6 million in false claims to his state's Medicaid system has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, after the government sought 37 months and the fraudster himself had argued for no prison time at all.

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Convicted NC Tech Exec, Wife Accused Of Defaming Couple

By Hayley Fowler

A couple facing claims they sabotaged a licensing deal that ultimately drove a North Carolina software company out of business have accused the company's co-founder and his wife of spending months slandering them online while the suit was otherwise on hold.

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Ex-Minn. Public Defender Gets Probation For Tax Fraud

By Asha Glover

A former Minneapolis chief public defender who argued that he should receive a lenient sentence after resigning in disgrace amid accusations that he failed to pay taxes for years on his private law firm was sentenced to three years probation by a Minnesota federal court.

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Trump Hush Money Case Offers Master Class In Trial Strategy

The New York criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump typifies some of the greatest challenges that lawyers face in crafting persuasive presentations, providing lessons on how to handle bad facts, craft a simple story that withstands attack, and cross-examine with that story in mind, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

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Analysis

Alito Flag Report Fuels Ethics Debate, But Likely No Recusal

By Katie Buehler

Responses to a report that an upside-down American flag flew outside U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home following the 2020 presidential election broke along partisan lines Friday, with conservatives decrying it as a smear campaign and liberals calling for his recusal from pending election-related cases and for general court ethics reform.

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Analysis

Trump's Potential Witness Could Be Defense 'Dynamite'

By Phillip Bantz

As Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan nears its end, experts say criminal defense attorney Robert Costello, who once advised the former president's ex-fixer and key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, has surfaced as a potentially bombshell witness for the defense.

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Menendez Bribery Trial: 5 Things To Know About Week 1

By Carla Baranauckas

Explosive opening statements, closed-door jury questioning and an FBI agent's recount of the moment he found a treasure trove of gold bars and cash highlighted the first week of trial in the government's second corruption case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

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Ga. Judge In 2020 Election Cases To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, who has presided over high-profile cases involving the 2020 election, voting rights and abortion, will take senior status on Jan. 1, 2025, according to an update Friday.

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AG Garland Held In Contempt By House Committees

By Courtney Bublé

Two House committees voted late Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of the president and his ghostwriter speaking with special counsel Robert Hur for his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.

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Ex-Baltimore State's Atty Says 20-Month Sentence Too Harsh

By Emily Sawicki

Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has asked a federal judge to cut down prosecutors' requested 20-month prison sentence after she was convicted of abusing a COVID-19-era program to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, arguing the proposal "stray[s] from the reality of this case."

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'We Feel It': NJ Ranks 2nd In Ch. 11 Cases, Chief Judge Says

By George Woolston

New Jersey federal courts saw the second most Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the nation over the last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb of the District of New Jersey said on Friday.

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NJ Courts Chief Warns Plan To Pick Appeals Bench A 'Mistake'

By George Woolston

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court on Friday defended how the state judiciary assigns appeals court judges, criticizing a proposal to move the power to appoint appellate judges from the chief justice to the state Senate and the governor's office.

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1st Circ. Rejects Ex-Immigration Judges' Bid For Asylum Redo

By Elliot Weld

The First Circuit's full bench refused to reopen a Salvadoran woman's case seeking asylum, despite former immigration judges weighing in to say that the judge who denied her asylum didn't follow a legal requirement to ensure her record was complete.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Haynes and Boone LLP and Lubin & Enoch PC lead this week's edition of Law360's Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously determined that federal courts do not have discretion to toss a case once it's decided that the claims belong in arbitration.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The SEC adopted cybersecurity rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place for detecting data breaches and for notifying customers when their personal information may have been compromised, and lawyers said SPACs won't get sought-after relief from a new 1% tax on stock buybacks under a recent Treasury Department proposal. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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