prosecutors

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Prosecutors will ask a judge to dismiss all charges in the sexual assault case against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at a court hearing on Tuesday, the New York Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

The Manhattan district attorney's office will file a motion recommending the case be dropped and laying out the chronology of events that led to that point, according to the Post.

Strauss-Kahn, who has denied the allegations, was once seen as a leading contender to be president of France until a maid, Nafissatou Diallo, accused him of sexual assault on May 14 at New York's Sofitel Hotel. He was arrested and forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund a few days later.

This is a man who has had his life destroyed over a bogus allegation and over-zealous prosecutors. He has already been given a life sentence and it wasn’t one imposed by the courts. Hopefully those responsible will be held accountable.

One of Glenn Beck’s big gold sponsors is in some serious trouble:

Glenn Beck might, for once, be right: the government iscoming for your gold. But only if you happened to buy it from one of Beck's advertisers, the Superior Gold Group. At the request of prosecutors from LA County and Santa Monica city who have filed a civil suit against the company, Los Angeles County judge has ordered that Superior Gold be placed into receivership and all of its assets—bank accounts, real estate, and presumably gold stored for customers—frozen. On Monday, a court-appointed lawyer actually physically seized control of the company, presumably to prevent further wrongdoing. The lawsuit alleged that among other things, Superior had defrauded its customers by overcharging them, fraudulently inducing them to buy overpriced collectors' coins rather than the bullion that they wanted, and taking customers' money for coins they never produced. The prosecutors hope that the lawsuit will provide restitution for all of the company's ripped off customers. The judge will hold a hearing later this month to decide whether the company's assets should remain frozen until the case goes to trial.

(h/t Cesca)

The whole investigation into the handling of the late Ted Stevens prosecution took a really interesting turn this weekend:

One of the prosecutors who handled the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens committed suicide over the weekend, according to his lawyer.

Justice Department prosecutor Nicholas Marsh and five others have been the subject of an investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility over their handling of the Stevens case, which the Justice Department ultimately dropped amid charges the government did not properly share evidence with Stevens' defense attorneys. The judge in the Stevens case also ordered a special prosecutor to look into it.

Bob Luskin, an attorney for Marsh, told CNN Marsh killed himself but did not provide details. "It did seem he was overwhelmed by the emotional cost of this investigation," said Luskin. According to the attorney, Marsh was in his late 30s.

And for those that can’t remember before 2009, this case was handled by the Bush DOJ, a DOJ that had a lot of questionable practices and was accused of being “politicized”. The final report on this investigation should read like a John Grisham novel.

Another court battle over the health care reform is brewing:

The top prosecutors in seven states are probing the constitutionality of a political deal that cut a funding break for Nebraska in order to pass a federal health care reform bill, South Carolina's attorney general said Tuesday.

Attorney General Henry McMaster said he and his counterparts in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington state - all Republicans - are jointly taking a look at the deal they've dubbed the "Nebraska compromise."

"The Nebraska compromise, which permanently exempts Nebraska from paying Medicaid costs that Texas and all other 49 states must pay, may violate the United States Constitution - as well as other provisions of federal law," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

This isn’t even limited to just red state, but blue states as well. The deal Nelson got stinks big time, but honestly these are the same types of games we have seen in Washington for years. Remember the “Bridge to Nowhere”? It’s a practice that each party campaigns on fixing until they get in power, then they fall in love with it all over again.

Image via Wikipedia

The man wanted for the slaying of four Washington State police officers should have been behind bars, but he wasn’t. Mike Huckabee, then the governor of Arkansas, decided to let the guy out of jail – a criminal with a very violent history. In a statement released by Huckabee, he decides to blame everyone else:

When President Obama changed his mind and said he wouldn’t release those photos I figured it had to be something really bad.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Reading this I kept thinking back to 2003 when Bush and his ilk were out there saying “Saddam has these rape and torture rooms”. Well guess what? So do we..

As we continue to learn more about Gitmo and Abu Gharib its becoming harder to believe that Abu Gharib was just a few soldiers acting on their own ambitions. We already know that what we saw happening in the original Abu Gharib manuals pretty much mimic what the EIT memos were saying. That means someone either gave orders/guidance or we have just seen the king of all coincidences.

No matter what cause Abu Gharib to occur, one thing is for certain. We now need a full blown inquiry. It mustn’t be limited to one facility, but to the military and intelligence community as a whole. This is the kind of investigation that only Congress along with a army of prosecutors can delve into. Hopefully this latest report will put us closer to that reality, and that reality is that this happened at the hands of the U.S.:

(photos after the fold – graphic warning)

The employer of Phil Gramm, the very man who championed to get rid of banking regulations and served as an economic adviser to the McCain Campaign, has been busted:

UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, will pay $780 million to avoid U.S. prosecution and settle regulatory claims that it helped thousands of wealthy Americans use Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying taxes.

UBS agreed to resolve claims by the U.S. Justice Department that the bank helped U.S. citizens hide accounts from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. government said in statements released today. Prosecutors won’t pursue criminal charges if UBS makes promised reforms while paying $400 million in tax-related payments. The bank must also disgorge $380 million under accords with prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agreement resolves SEC claims that it acted as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser to thousands of U.S. citizens who held accounts directly or in the names of others. UBS spokesman Mark Arena wasn’t available for comment.

I bet they aren’t too happy at UBS about this. Perhaps Gramm will call them a company of “whiners”.

Oh my – so Obama was interviewed by prosecutors last week about the Blago scandal. We found out yesterday in the released report from the transition team. Since the report showed no improper contact, the idiots on the right have to make up some new scandal. Perhaps Hugh Hewitt can be charged with this crusade:

Further, the interview occurred on the 18th, and it wasn't disclosed until today?  What happened to transparency?

How dare team Obama break the golden rule! Don’t they know that as soon as this happened, they were supposed to contact Hugh? I mean, come on. How dare they make someone wait 3 business days to find out! We are talking about Blago, not little things like outing a CIA agent or anything. National security is small potatoes compared to some greedy, idiotic governor trying to get rich.