Archive for July, 2017

Crystal settles with community group over First Amendment violation allegations – ECM Publishers

Years after controversy in the community, the City of Crystal will pay a $20,000 settlement to Communities United Against Police Brutality and receive annual Open Meeting Law and First Amendment training, according to court orders stemming from a lawsuit filed by the organzation in May 2016. The organization sued the city after allegations that members First Amendment rights were stifled by city leaders at council meetings, and that the council illegally conducted closed-door sessions and engaged in a closed meeting via email, both of which actions were in violation of Minnesotas Open Meeting Law. The allegations occurred during a period spanning from December 2012 through December 2014, when CUAPB members said they were silenced or denied the ability to freely participate in open forums during council meetings, primarily to voice opposition to the termination of two whistle-blowing Crystal police officers. According to allegations, officers Alan Watt and Robin Erkenbrack were fired in retaliation for speaking out against misconduct in the citys investigation of a 2008 incident, during which the now-disbanded West Metro Gang Strike Force confiscated the belongings of the Ramirez family of Crystal, who later filed a theft report. The city maintained that both Watt and Erkenbrack were terminated with just cause and that an investigation had proceeded, although Erkenbrack later settled with the city for $160,000 and was reinstated as a sergeant.

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Crystal settles with community group over First Amendment violation allegations - ECM Publishers

New Details From Hillary Clinton’s Memoir Revealed – New York Times

Photo The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at a fund-raiser in June. What Happened, her new memoir, promises to be a candid account of what the 2016 election was like for her. Credit Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Hillary Rodham Clinton hasnt shied away from the public stage in the months since her defeat in the 2016 election. Shes been giving speeches, sitting on panels, going to the theater, and taking selfies with supporters, and this fall, shell be publishing a book that promises to be her most personal memoir yet, according to her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The book, titled What Happened, will offer an intimate view of what it was like for Mrs. Clinton to run as the first female presidential candidate from a major party in United States history, in an often vicious and turbulent campaign.

Ms. Clinton will explore the mistakes she made, what it was like to run against Donald J. Trump, the difficulties she has faced as a woman in politics, the role that Russian hacking played in the election, and how she recovered from the humiliating loss, according to a description of the book released by Simon & Schuster.

Most of all, though, the book will give insight into what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most dramatic campaigns in modern American history.

In the past, for reasons I try to explain, Ive often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net, Mrs. Clinton writes in the books introduction. Now Im letting my guard down.

What Happened is due out on Sept. 12.

A version of this article appears in print on July 28, 2017, on Page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Title and New Details From Clinton Memoir.

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New Details From Hillary Clinton's Memoir Revealed - New York Times

Adriana Cohen: Hillary Clinton persists with woe is me – Boston Herald

Two-time presidential loser Hillary Clinton should stay in her woods. But instead of accepting her latest election defeat gracefully, shes writing another book due out in September.

Doesnt she realize, hardly anyone read her last one?

No matter. In her soon-to-be-released tome shes putting the finishing touches on this summer, Clinton is reportedly doubling down on the false narrative that Russia and former FBI Director James Comey stole the 2016 election from her.

This is a Hard Choice between sad and delusional to borrow from the title of her last book.

Zero evidence has been presented to date by any U.S. intelligence agencies or polling facilities that Russia hacked or manipulated ballots. In fact, in many polling stations throughout the nation, offline voting is impossible to hack. And as Clinton herself has been quick to add, she beat Trump in the popular vote. So scratch that non-starter.

Russia didnt design our electoral system our Founding Fathers did. Putin didnt tell Clinton not to campaign in critical swing states or advise her to alienate half the nation by calling hardworking, patriotic voters a basket of deplorables.

Clinton did that all by herself.

Add to it the fact that Clinton wasnt trusted by the majority of voters on both sides of the aisle. Countless polls taken throughout the campaign revealed even Democrats trusted socialist Bernie Sanders more than the Democratic front-runner who was embroiled in one scandal after another. From the shady money coming into her family foundation, to the mishandling of classified information in a private email server jeopardizing Americas national security, to the eyebrow-raising Russia-uranium deal she orchestrated while secretary of state, and other pay-to-play activities that were at minimum slimy.

Then theres Comey. Instead of blaming him for her self-inflicted election loss, she should be thanking the former FBI director for not swapping her trademark yellow pantsuit for an orange jumpsuit.

Clearly between deleting tens of thousands of emails, wiping servers and smashing devices with a hammer there was plenty of evidence discovered by the FBIs investigation to bring charges. Attacking the notoriously thin-skinned Comey who will get hauled in to testify against her if the email investigation is reopened is a colossally dumb move.

Add it up and Clinton should quit pushing false narratives in books and beyond, quit the anti-Trump Resistance and thank her lucky stars shes not in the slammer.

Voters were smart to steer clear of Clinton. She continues to demonstrate bad judgement. She should continue, in her Westchester woods, to take a hike.

Adriana Cohen is host of The Adriana Cohen Show heard Wednesdays at noon on Boston Herald Radio. Follow her on Twitter @AdrianaCohen16.

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Adriana Cohen: Hillary Clinton persists with woe is me - Boston Herald

Hillary Clinton’s new book ‘What Happened’ to explain 2016 election defeat, Russian interference – Firstpost

New York: Defeated Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton promises to let her guard down and explain what happened in her shock electoral defeat to Donald Trump, including the mistakes she made, in a book to be published in September.

File image of Hillary Clinton. Reuters

Publishers Simon and Schuster revealed on Wednesday that the previously unnamed tome would be entitled "What Happened" and would be the former secretary of state's "most personal memoir yet."

"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I'm letting my guard down", writes Clinton in the introduction.

Her publishers said the book would reveal what Clinton thought and felt during the bruising 2016 campaign that saw her make history as the first US woman to win the presidential nomination from a major party.

It will describe "what it was like" to run against Trump, "the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up", they said in an announcement ahead of the 12 September release date.

Clinton would take the reader "inside the intense personal experience" of an election "marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules", Simon and Schuster added.

The tome will also see Clinton double down on her belief that Russian interference cost her the White House.

Clinton has repeatedly blamed her loss on Russian cyberattacks and has alleged that associates of Trump likely had a hand in the effort.

She also says then-FBI director James Comey dealt her campaign a severe blow when just days before the November election he briefly revisited an inquiry into the scandal over her use of private email while at the State Department.

"Hillary shows just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the outcome, and why Americans need to understand them to protect our values and our democracy in the future", Simon and Schuster said.

Clinton is the author of five previous books, most recently "Hard Choices" published in 2014, as well as "An Invitation to the White House" and "It Takes a Village," all published by Simon and Schuster.

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Hillary Clinton's new book 'What Happened' to explain 2016 election defeat, Russian interference - Firstpost

Second Circuit Clarifies Fifth Amendment Law, with Implications for US Prosecution of International Cartels – The National Law Review

On July 19, 2017, the Second Circuit vacated the convictions and dismissed the indictments of two individuals accused of playing a role in the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). United States v. Allen, No. 16-898-cr, Slip Op. at 3 (2d Cir. July 19, 2017). The ruling was based on the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides that [n]o person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. US Const. amend. V. The Second Circuits decision clarifies that this protection against self-incrimination is an absolute trial right that applies to all criminal defendants in US courts (including non-citizens) and to all compelled testimony (including testimony given during a foreign governments investigation). United States v. Allen, No. 16-898-cr, Slip Op. at 55. The courts clarification of the Fifth Amendments scope has important implications for US antitrust enforcers prosecuting international cartels and for individuals ensnared in cross-border criminal investigations alike.

The charges against the defendants in United States v. Allen stemmed from government investigations by the United States, the United Kingdom and others, concerning allegations that several banks had manipulated the LIBOR, a benchmark interest rate for short-term inter-bank loans that is also used as a reference rate for a variety of globally traded financial instruments. The defendants were initially investigated by the United Kingdoms Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and made self-incriminating statements during compulsory interviews with FCA officials. The FCA provided transcripts of defendants compelled testimony to a third individual under investigation, Paul Robson, who reviewed the transcripts in detail. For reasons unknown, the FCA then dropped the charges against Robson, and his case was picked up by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Robson pleaded guilty and then cooperated with the DOJ by providing information about the defendants that led to their indictment and by testifying against them at trial.

On appeal, the Second Circuit threw out both defendants convictions and dismissed their indictments, holding that the Fifth Amendments prohibition on the use of compelled testimony in American criminal proceedings applies even when a foreign sovereign has compelled the testimony. Slip Op. at 80. The Fifth Amendments protection against self-incrimination is an absolute trial right that applies in any American criminal proceeding, and so the defendants status as non-citizens did not alter the courts analysis. Id. at 37-38. In short, the court explained, compelled testimony cannot be used to secure a conviction in an American court. This is so even when the testimony was compelled by a foreign government in full accordance with its own law. Id. at 38.

Cross-border government investigations into price-fixing and other matters of international scope are becoming increasingly common, and United States v. Allen serves as an important reminder that many jurisdictions outside the United States do not have the procedural safeguards in place that the United States Constitution demands. A foreign investigation that does not satisfy these safeguards may produce evidence that does not hold up in court. Where criminal proceedings have a foreign origin, discovery should be taken to reveal potential evidentiary shortcomings, such as witnesses who are tainted by exposure to compelled testimony. Consideration should also be given to the effect of such shortcomings, if any, in potential follow-on civil suits, where standards can be less demanding.

2017 McDermott Will & Emery

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Second Circuit Clarifies Fifth Amendment Law, with Implications for US Prosecution of International Cartels - The National Law Review