Thursday, June 27, 2024

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1/ Judge Aileen Cannon rejected convicted felon Trump’s claim that the FBI misled the court in order to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago related to his mishandling of national security secrets. In an 11-page ruling, Cannon said Trump’s argument that the FBI misrepresented facts to a federal judge in order to secure the search warrant were meritless. FBI agents found 103 classified documents, which eventually led to Trump’s indictment, after searching Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Cannon, however, agreed to schedule additional hearings to resolve “pertinent factual disputes” related to key evidence in the case. Prosecutors expressed concern that holding evidentiary hearings would result in a “mini-trial” that would subject some key witnesses to cross-examination before the actual trial. “There is a difference between a resource-wasting and delay-producing ‘mini-trial,’ on the one hand,” Cannon wrote, “and an evidentiary hearing geared to adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues.” (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / CNN / ABC News / USA Today / The Hill)

2/ The Supreme Court struck down part of a federal anti-corruption law and ruled that state officials may accept “gratuities” from people who wish to reward them for their official actions. The ruling vacates the bribery conviction of a former Indiana mayor, who accepted $13,000 from a trucking company after he directed about $1 million worth of city contracts to the company. The ruling, 6-3 along ideological lines, says federal anti-corruption laws only apply to situations where officials accept gifts before taking government action – not to being rewarded after. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in her dissent that the ruling relied on an “absurd and atextual reading of the statute” that “only today’s Court could love.” (New York Times / Washington Post / Associated Press / Vox / Huffpost / CNN / New Republic)

3/ The Supreme Court stripped the Securities and Exchange Commission of its main tool for enforcing rules against securities fraud. The 6-3 decision means the SEC can no longer use its in-house court to enforce regulations and imposes penalties.Defendants accused of fraud now have the right to a jury trial. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented and accused the conservative major...

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