Trump document case judge's previous error, Florida lawyer gets 4-year sentence, Trump ally charged over vote machine tampering, and more ⬇️
Reuters Legal
From the courts to law firms, we bring you the latest legal news. Subscribe to our newsletters: https://bit.ly/3nhgllA
☀️ Good morning from The Legal File! Here are today's top legal stories:
The judge in former U.S. President Donald Trump's upcoming trial over his handling of classified documents made two key errors in a June trial, one of which violated a fundamental constitutional right of the defendant and could have invalidated the proceedings, according to legal experts and a court transcript.
Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man — accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse — to the defendant's family and the general public, a trial transcript obtained by Reuters showed. A defendant's right to a public trial is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment.
Cannon, a 42-year-old former federal prosecutor appointed by Trump to the bench in 2020 late in his presidency, also neglected to swear in the prospective jury pool — an obligatory procedure in which people who may serve on the panel pledge to tell the truth during the selection process. This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
A lawyer who supported Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat was charged on August 3 with illegally accessing voting machines in Michigan, just hours before the former president was due to appear in a Washington, D.C., court on criminal charges that he conspired to cling on to power.
Stefanie Lambert Junttila, who along with other Trump allies tried to reverse Trump's defeat to Democratic President Joe Biden in Michigan, was charged with accessing, tampering with and undue possession of voting machines in the state, according to court records.
Lambert was the third person charged in Michigan this week after a special prosecutor in that state reviewed allegations that Trump allies illegally accessed voting machines after the 2020 election.
What's happening with Trump:
Recommended by LinkedIn
A Florida lawyer was sentenced to four years in federal prison for mail fraud on August 3 after prosecutors in New York said he filed hundreds of fraudulent disability lawsuits using stolen identities.
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan also ordered Stuart Finkelstein, 68, to pay a $200,000 fine and forfeit more than $640,000.
Prosecutors said Finkelstein filed nearly 300 Florida and New York federal lawsuits on behalf of two plaintiffs who purportedly visited public establishments but could not enter them because they were not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But the plaintiffs never retained Finkelstein as an attorney or even visited the establishments, prosecutors said.
Four partners who represented Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp have left Clare Locke to launch their own practice in D.C., Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch, which will focus on 'reputation management and fighting misinformation.' Former Clare Locke partners Megan Meier, Daniel Watkins and Dustin Pusch were part of Dominion's litigation team.
There is high demand for defamation advice, Meier said, calling it "a booming area of the law with a ton of work to go around."
More from the legal industry:
👋 That's all for today, thank you for reading The Legal File!
For more legal industry news, read and subscribe to The Daily Docket.