AG Rollins' ethics violations, Trump lawyer quits, bipartisan support for 5th Circuit nominee and Deutsche Bank settles Epstein accusers' case ?
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Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, improperly used her U.S. Justice Department position to meddle in a local district attorney election by leaking to newspapers dirt about a political rival – one of many ethics violations cited in two reports by government investigators on Wednesday.
The reports were released a day after Rollins, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden as the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, announced she would resign by Friday.
A scathing 161-page report by the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz report described a host of ethics lapses, from Rollins improperly attending a Democratic fundraising event with U.S. first lady Jill Biden in her capacity as a prosecutor to accusations that she "knowingly and willfully made a false statement" during her interview with Horowitz's office.
The independent U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) report said Rollins "willfully violated" the Hatch Act, a law that limits the political activities of federal employees, in "one of the most egregious Hatch Act violations" the office had ever investigated.
Tim Parlatore, an attorney who has represented Donald Trump in a pair of U.S. Justice Department investigations led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, said on Wednesday he has left the Republican former president's legal team.
Parlatore has represented Trump in Smith's investigations into efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and into Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office in 2021.
In a statement, Parlatore did not give a reason for his departure but said he believes "very strongly in the merits of the case, and the DOJ is acting improperly."
According to U.S. media reports, fellow Trump attorney Evan Corcoran has recused himself from the classified documents investigation.
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Progressive advocates have pressed Senate Democrats to scrap the “blue slip” tradition whereby senators must approve judicial nominees from their home states. The custom was abandoned for circuit judges during the Trump administration, but has remained in place for district court picks, frustrating critics who have said Republicans exploit the process to stall nominations.
Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday touted the nomination of a judge to the 5th Circuit as an example of how Republicans can work with President Joe Biden to advance judicial nominees.
Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a longtime federal magistrate judge in the Northern District of Texas, was nominated by Biden after Texas’ two Republican senators recommended her for the post. Sen. John Cornyn said he and Sen. Ted Cruz set up a bipartisan committee of Texas lawyers that vetted Ramirez.
“This is an example of how I think the process should work,” Cornyn said at a hearing Wednesday.
Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit by women who say they were abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and accused the German bank, where he had been a client from 2013 to 2018, of facilitating his sex trafficking.
The accord resolves claims in a proposed class action in Manhattan federal court by Epstein's accusers and was confirmed by their lawyers late on Wednesday. Court approval is required.
David Boies, one of the accusers' lawyers, said in a statement that Epstein's abuses "could not have happened without the collaboration and support of many powerful individuals and institutions. We appreciate Deutsche Bank's willingness to take responsibility for its role."
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