By Sara Kropf As a general matter, there’s no love lost between prosecutors and defense lawyers. But in one very important way, defense lawyers place an incredible amount of trust in prosecutors. When I say there’s no love lost, I don’t mean on a personal level; I’m...
By: Sara Kropf Last week, news hit that Donald Trump had received written questions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. More interesting, President Trump asserted he answered them “very easily.” Here’s what he said during the interview: I write the answers. My...
By: Sara Kropf In Part I of the series, I introduced the idea that defense counsel are increasingly fighting back against DOJ in creative ways. In Part II, we talked about Sheldon Silver and his defense counsel's efforts to use DOJ's very public statements against Mr....
By: Sara Kropf Last December, Donald Blankenship was found guilty of conspiracy to violate mine safety laws. This is a misdemeanor. He was acquitted of the more serious felony charge against him for false SEC filings. In early April 2016, Mr. Blankenship was sentenced...
By: Sara Kropf Most criminal defense lawyers would have no idea how to draft an interrogatory. That’s ok; it doesn’t come up in their practices. And most lawyers who handle civil cases would have no idea how to advise a client whose testimony may implicate criminal...
By: Sara Kropf As many of you know, Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division on tax-exempt organizations, testified before Congress this week. However, the media coverage has not focused on what she said as much as what she ended up not saying. Ms. Lerner invoked her...