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DanTheHorn

Burnt Ends
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Posts posted by DanTheHorn

  1. Tell him to be careful on his first internship. In the 90's I wanted to work with Object Oriented Design and R&D. Took first internship that came along because of my grades and ended up doing databases, 4GL, C and SQL became my first language. It took me years to get back to what I wanted to do. I was able to get back because one never forgets what you learn at a good CS program like UT.

  2. Quote

    The pundits say that since prosecutors won’t get to see or use any privileged material taken when FBI agents raided and searched Cohen’s law office, home and hotel room Monday the intrusion will not be a problem. This is because prosecutors and FBI agents create firewalls and taint teams to preclude privileged information from being used against the client in a criminal case.

     

    But this analysis completely misses the point and ignores the distinction between the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution on the one hand, and the Fourth and Sixth Amendments on the other.

    The Fifth Amendment is an exclusionary rule. By its terms, it prevents material obtained in violation of the privilege of self-incrimination from being used to incriminate a defendant – that is, to convict him or her of a crime.

    But the Fourth and Sixth Amendments provide far broader protections: they prohibit government officials from in any way intruding on the privacy of lawyer-client confidential rights of citizens.

    In other words, if the government improperly seizes private or privileged material, the violation has already occurred, even if the government never uses the material from the person from whom it was seized.

    Not surprisingly, therefore, firewalls and taint teams were developed in the context of the Fifth Amendment, not the Fourth or Sixth Amendments. Remember who comprises the firewall and taint teams: other FBI agents, prosecutors and government officials, who have no right under the Fourth and Sixth Amendments even to see private or confidential materials, regardless of whether it is ever used against a defendant.

    The very fact that this material is seen or read by a government official constitutes a core violation. It would be the same if the government surreptitiously recorded a confession of a penitent to a priest, or a description of symptoms by a patient to a doctor, or a discussion between a husband and wife of their sex life.

    The government simply has no right to this material, whether it ever uses it against the penitent, the patient, or the spouse in a criminal case.

    So let’s not dismiss the potential violation of the rights of Michael Cohen and President Trump, if it turns out that included among the materials seized by the government in the raid were private or confidential information or documents.

    The recourses for intrusions on the Fourth and Sixth Amendments are multifold: the victim of an intrusion can sue for damages; he or she can exclude the material from use by the government in criminal or civil cases; or the victim can demand the material back. But none of these remedies undo the harm to privacy and confidentiality done to the citizen by the government’s intrusion into his private and confidential affairs.

    An equally important harm is to important relationships that are protected by the law: between lawyer and client, priest and penitent, doctor and patient, husband and wife, etc.

    If the ordinary citizen sees that even the president’s confidential communications with his lawyer can be seized and perused, he or she will be far less willing to engage in such communications. As a society we value such communications; that is why our laws protect them and that is why it should be extremely difficult for the government to intrude upon them, except as a last recourse in extremely important cases.

    From what we know, this case does not meet those stringent standards. Much of the material sought from Cohen by the warrant could probably be obtained through other sources, such as bank, tax and other records that are subject to subpoena.

    Moreover, the alleged crimes at issue – highly technical violations of banking and election laws – would not seem to warrant the extreme measure of a highly publicized search and seizure of records that may well include some that are subject to the lawyer-client privilege.

    Someday soon, government is going to have to justify its decision to conduct this raid. I challenge any reader who is not concerned about the raid to honestly answer the following question: If the raid had been conducted on Hillary Clinton’s lawyer’s office and home, would you be as unconcerned?  The truth now!

    Alan Dershowitz says the raid itself is an infringement on constitutional rights. So under his scenario we just need to be lawyers and we can plan criminal activity with our clients as long as they execute it and we would never be incriminated unless the client got caught and was a rat.  

  3. 3 minutes ago, RCRanger03 said:

    Berman was recused from this deal due to his relationship with Guiliani which lead to:

    On January 5, 2018 interim United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman named Khuzami as Deputy US Attorney for Manhattan. Khuzami was selected to serve as Enforcement Director by Mary Schapiro, the SEC Chairman appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, he also spoke before the 2004 Republican National Convention on behalf of then-president George W. Bush for the extension of the Patriot Act. On April 28, 2005, he testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security in support of the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. He also donated to the presidential campaign of John McCain.

    What are you saying? Are you saying Berman has recused himself from the Michael Cohen investigation? Link?

  4. 1 hour ago, Machinator said:

    Courtesy of @Longhornfrenzy

    DabWQkjUwAEuPj-.jpg

    laughing-my-ass-off.gif

    They were not the premier game in the state even when we had the game much less in the country. Aggy can't help themselves. Aggy does not understand that in the last 30 years Texas and OU have actually been in the hunt for the big prize and that is what makes Texas v OU a premier game.

  5. 24 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    It may be good in theory, but it's also good in practice.  A lawyer's office is bound to be full of attorney-client privilege.  Therefore, whoever executes the warrant and reviews the seized material is highly likely to be exposed to such material.  Those people will have to be excluded from the investigative and prosecutorial team and subjected to a protective order with stiff penalties for violation.

     

    It may not prevent leaks entirely, but there is every incentive by Mueller's team, and everyone involved, to preserve the attorney client privilege where it remains applicable.

    Well since my communications skills suck I was not implying that things should not be separated between teams within the justice department. What I was trying to communicate is that this practice is in place to try to protect attorney client privilege but in the end it really doesn't because people talk. Going after an attorney has to have a damn high threshold and that is why even though I do not like Trump and lawyers it is hard to feel good about this step that has been taken. Now the other side of me feels like:

    inglorious-bastards-gif-19.gif

  6. Oh by the way for the Trumpkins and Fox news watchers this is the guy leading the investigation. He also donated $5,400 to Trump campaign. I say it because I watched Laura Ingram last night and this was not mentioned and Trump implied he was a democrat.

    DSq6mW6V4AAC_tD.jpg

    • Like 2
  7. The taint team is good in theory but people talk at the water cooler and one knows that stuff will get out. Rudy Giuliani said to the Washington Post that going after a lawyer is uncommon but not surprising. All I know is I do not like Trump or lawyers but this is still something that is hard to decide how one should feel about it.

  8. The Michael Cohen investigation and Stormy Daniels lawsuit issues are buried in the Mueller and Trump threads and really are unrelated. I think this new investigation is worthy of it' own thread because it can result in evidence and charges that are unrelated to Russia and will never get on Mueller's desk.   [sarcasm]Also, as long as Trump and Cohen did not conspire to commit any crimes together this investigation will have nothing to do with Trump [/sarcasm] so why bury it in the Trump thread.

    Now that that is out of the way the Michael Cohen investigation will probably result in charges that are easier to prove such as the breaking of campaign financing laws. Fraud in filling out federal forms for loans. Less likely but possible threats against Stormy Daniels which could bring federal and state charges although the charge of harassment based on the article below may be difficult to prove. Also, Avenatti said they will not bring charges any time soon because a Nevada investigation could be used by Cohen to delay the civil suite until a criminal investigation in Nevada is resolved.

    https://www.shouselaw.com/nevada/harassment.html

     

     

  9. Quote

    Sandusky, 67, retired from Penn State shortly after the Alamo Bowl in December 1999. In his 2000 autobiography, “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story,” he says he decided to leave after he “came to the realization I was not destined to become the head football coach at Penn State.”

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/03/jerry_sandusky_former_penn_sta.html

    The movie was summary of the critical information that is available through court documents, biographies, memoirs and news stories. The movie did not talk about Sandusky possibly getting pushed out. Based on the original article breaking the story it sure looks like he was forced out since the first known allegation by administrators was after the 1999 Alamo Bowl.

  10. Every time I listen to CDC I just love his attitude. Paraphrase:

     

    1) "I was not here to show everyone who is boss. Coaches and athletes are the boss now we are about to put things into place that I want once I listened."

    2) "Every time a coach ask for something I train my people to say yes sir as long it is within regulations and does not kill our budget. They do not have to check with me first."

  11. Well does that mean the agreement is null and void since one of the parties was not really a party to the agreement? What say you lawyers. Of course people that stayed at La Quinta will also respond.

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