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Zoe Tillman Profile picture
Zoe Tillman
@ZoeTillman
Hello from court. Covering the intersection of law and politics at Bloomberg News @business, formerly @BuzzFeedNews, @TheNLJ. ztillman2 at bloomberg dot net.
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Oct 1, 2018 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
A deep dive: How #SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh's partisan jabs last week raise ethics questions that could follow him to the Supreme Court (or back to the DC Circuit, if his nomination fails) buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… Kavanaugh attacked Senate Dems, the Clintons, and "left-wing" groups, raising Qs going forward about whether and when he'll face recusal requests — a number of groups suing the Trump admin have opposed him (ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Lambda Legal, etc.) buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Sep 27, 2018 • 49 tweets • 11 min read
Today's hearing for #SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford is set to start at 10am. You can watch live here: judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/nomin…
Senators will get five minutes to question each witness, which they can cede to staff counsel. From the committee on logistics: Make sure to follow @pdmcleod, who is in the hearing room this morning. And check in here: buzzfeednews.com/article/buzzfe… for updates
Sep 25, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Remember when the owners of a DC wine bar sued Trump's DC hotel, claiming it had an unfair and unlawful advantage in the market once Trump became president? buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… A judge is hearing arguments soon on Trump's motion to dismiss the case. Stay tuned. Arguments just finished on Trump and his hotel's motions to dismiss an unfair competition lawsuit filed by the owners of a DC wine bar. The main argument was that Trump should be immune against private lawsuits like this that are related to his duties as president
Sep 18, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A brief digression from all the Kavanaugh news to talk about a report released today by the DOJ inspector general's office about how the Bureau of Prisons manages female inmates. Here's the report: oig.justice.gov/reports/2018/e… The conclusion: "Overall, we concluded that BOP has not been strategic in its management of female inmates." BOP only recently took steps to review its own progress following a manual for how to manage female inmates, and didn't require special training for national exec staff
Sep 17, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements on 12/1/17: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… He agreed to delay sentencing while he cooperated with Mueller's office. More than nine months later--> Earlier in the summer, there were signs we were getting closer to sentencing in Flynn's case. In early July, the lawyers said they weren't ready yet, but asked if the court could start the process of getting a presentence report ready
Sep 14, 2018 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
BREAKING: Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is expected to enter a guilty plea. Special counsel Mueller's office just filed a new criminal information, a type of charging document that usually means there's a plea deal buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… NEW: The court just changed Manafort's upcoming 11 a.m. hearing from a "pretrial conference" to an "arraignment and plea agreement hearing." Story: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Sep 14, 2018 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Here's the latest status report in the Ms. L case (family separation class action): As of 9/10, the govt had reunited 8 more kids with parents and discharged 24 kids (to sponsors, for instance) assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4878… This week's report (left pic) organizes the numbers differently from last week's (right pic). The govt has characterized a large number of parents, in the US and outside of the US, as no longer part of the covered class, b/c the ACLU has confirmed they don't wish to be reunified
Sep 13, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Remember last year when the chair of House Financial Services directed agencies to treat communications as congressional records, not agency records, to shield from FOIA? buzzfeednews.com/article/maryan… There's a ruling today in a FOIA case about all that: ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p… The court judge ruled DOJ has to turn over a few redacted documents involving communications with the White House related to a FOIA request for docs re: the Hensarling situation — the judge reviewed the docs and said they're not protected by attorney-client privilege
Sep 13, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the federal courts, today released a set of proposed changes to the Code of Conduct and the Rules for Judicial Conduct/Disability Proceedings: uscourts.gov/rules-policies… The proposed changes include new sections expanding definitions of misconduct, and making clear that if a judge sees what is clearly misconduct and doesn't report it, that is itself misconduct
Sep 13, 2018 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
#SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh's responses to written Qs from Senate Judiciary members are in: judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/… There's a long answer in response to Qs from Whitehouse about his finances: "I have not had gambling debts or participated in “fantasy” leagues" Kavanaugh on what happened with him not shaking the hand of the father of a Parkland shooting victim: "If I had known who he was, I would have shaken his hand, talked to him, and expressed my sympathy. And I would have listened to him." Prev. on this: buzzfeednews.com/article/amberj…
Sep 10, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina is due back in court this afternoon. Butina's lawyers are argung to have her released pending trial. The government is asking for a gag order for her laywers. Previously on a judge's decision to detain her: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… Update:
- The judge denied Maria Butina's motion to reconsider her pretrial detention, agreeing w/ earlier finding that there were no release conditions that would ensure she doesn't try to flee
- The judge imposed a gag order, finding comments by Butina's lawyer crossed a line
Sep 7, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos is going to be sentenced this afternoon. This is the first time we'll see him in court — when he pleaded guilty on Oct. 5, it was in a sealed hearing. Our first story on him: buzzfeednews.com/article/buzzfe… Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. He admitted misleading agents about his comms with people who said they had connections to Russia during the campaign. You'll recall he's the one who said a professor told him the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton
Sep 7, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
New: Jerome Corsi, the conservative author with ties to Roger Stone who was subpoenaed by Mueller's office to testify before the grand jury today, will *not* be making an appearance, his lawyer says. No further comment. Earlier: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil… Earlier this week, Corsi's lawyer told us he was trying to set up a separate sit-down with Mueller's office, which could make a grand jury appearance unnecessary. But his lawyer isn't commenting now on what happened
Sep 6, 2018 • 31 tweets • 9 min read
Day three of Brett Kavanaugh's #SCOTUS confirmation hearing is set to begin in about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, protesters have taken over Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley's office Here's Kavanaugh coming in. Grassely has gaveled in to start the hearing, and begins by addressing the controversy over the public release of confidential documents, saying Dems "only have themselves to blame if they didn't get the documents they wanted"
Sep 5, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Sen. Hirono just asked a series of Qs related to sexual harassment. She started by asking two Qs she asks all judicial nominees: 1. If they ever engaged in sexual harassment as an adult, and 2. If they ever faced discipline/entered into any settlements. Kavanaugh says no to both Kavanaugh clerked for and remained close with former judge Alex Kozinski, who stepped down amid multiple allegations of harassment by former clerks (see: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…). Hirono asks if Kavanaugh knew about allegations of harassment against Kozinski. Kavanaugh says no
Sep 5, 2018 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
All eyes are on Kavanaugh this morning, but I'm a few blocks away at the federal courthouse, where Paul Manafort's lawyers and prosecutors are back for a pretrial conference (you'll recall jury selection is set to begin 9/17, and opening statements are scheduled to start 9/24) The latest hearing in Paul Manafort's DC case just wrapped up. We got a series of rulings from the judge on what will and will not be allowed in his upcoming trial — some are similar to the EDVA case, and some are different:
Sep 4, 2018 • 51 tweets • 11 min read
Judge Brett Kavanaugh's #SCOTUS hearings kick off this morning. Dems are furious at the number of docs being withheld re: his time in the White House under W. Bush. Republicans are defending the extent of disclosures. @chrisgeidner has been on it --> The Kavanaugh hearing just got started and there's already chaos. Dems are interrupting Grassley as he starts to read his opening statement to protest the latest production of docs right before the hearing. Blumenthal is moving to adjourn. Grassley says they will proceed.
Aug 28, 2018 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Alexandria anymore. Hello on this steamy morning from the DC federal courthouse, where there's a pretrial hearing in Paul Manafort's case. Jury selection is set to start Sept. 17 Here's the pretrial statement both sides filed last week: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4792… There are several pending motions, incl. the govt's motion to exclude selective prosecution args and Manafort's motion to exclude info about legal advice he got on FARA
Aug 23, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
New: The latest status report in the Ms. L family separation class action is in. As of 8/20, there were 528 children in federal care where the adult associated with them is either ineligible for reunification or is unavailable assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4782… This number is down from the 565 children who were identified as being in ORR care as of 8/16. There was a drop in the number of children with parents who indicated they didn't want to be reunified, and kids with parents outside the US
Aug 22, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Another federal judge, this time in Maryland, has rejected the Trump administration's effort to get legal challenges to the inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 Census tossed out of court assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4780… Last month, a federal judge in Manhattan denied the administration's motion to get one of the citizenship question lawsuits dismissed in that court, see: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Aug 21, 2018 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Manafort Trial Day 16: The jury is set to begin its fourth day of deliberations at 9:30am. We haven't gotten any questions from the jurors since the first day, so it's tough to guess where they're at. On yesterday's (non)excitement: The jury went out to deliberate at 9:37 am (by my watch). No other business was discussed and the judge recessed. Now we wait. Stay tuned.