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Ex-Trump ethics lawyer’s Jan. 6 Committee lawsuit dismissed

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 14:08:54 +0000

Stefan Passantino appearing on The Tucker Carlson Show in November 2024 (YouTube).

A federal judge in Georgia has tossed out a lawsuit filed by a former Trump White House ethics lawyer accusing members of the House Committee to Investigate Jan. 6 of civil conspiracy and invasion of privacy in connection with their investigation into the attack on the Capitol.

U. S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross on Wednesday granted the government’s request to dismiss the case brought by Stefan Passantino, who claimed that members of the Committee leaked transcripts of confidential interviews to CNN to “ensure maximum damage” was done to his “reputation and his existing and future legal, political, and business clients.”

Passantino was deputy White House counsel during the first Trump administration who went back to the private sector during the Biden administration and worked for the Trump-supporting political action committee, Save America Leadership. There, he represented several people who testified before the Jan. 6 Committee.

Passantino was the first lawyer to represent Cassidy Hutchinson, the former special assistant to President Trump and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, in her meetings with the Committee.

According to Passantino, then-Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Senior Investigative Counsel Dan George in May 2022 contacted Hutchinson without his knowledge and advised his client that he “would not be advancing her interests” because he “was being paid by a Trump-affiliated third-party,” which ultimately led to her seeking new counsel.

Hutchinson participated in several additional interviews and in December 2022, a CNN reporter contacted Passantino and said an unreleased transcript from one of Hutchinson’s interviews suggested he had counseled her “not to answer the Committee’s questions fully and honestly.”

Hutchinson testified that before her initial sessions with the Committee, Passantino would dangle potential jobs “in Trumpworld” and tell her she would be “taken care of.”

“I want to make this clear to you: Stefan never told me to lie,” she told the committee. “He specifically told me, ‘I don’t want you to perjure yourself, but ‘I don’t recall’ isn’t perjury. They don’t know what you can and can’t recall.””

CNN then published an article entitled “Trump’s former White House ethics lawyer told Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony to January 6 committee, sources say.”

Passantino claimed the interview transcripts contradicted CNN’s own story about him advising Hutchinson to be deceptive, but asserted the network went through with it anyway because it was given to them directly by the Committee.

He then filed a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which allows injured plaintiffs to file tort lawsuits against the federal government in certain circumstances, typically when a government actor causes injury through negligence.

In dismissing his lawsuit, the court reasoned that Passantino’s claims of invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy arose out of alleged libel and slander, both of which are explicitly exempted from FTCA claims.

Essentially, because Passantino’s allegations are based on the Committee allegedly leaking false statements about him to the media, those allegedly false statements cannot form the basis of a valid claim under the FTCA’s Intentional Tort Exception (other exceptions include assault, battery, malicious prosecution, false arrest).

Ross summed up the reasoning as follows:

“At bottom, ‘all of the [Committee’s] allegedly tortious actions here are based on statements, representations, or imputations’ — actions that would form the basis of a claim barred by the libel/slander exception. And Passantino cannot point to any action by the Committee independent of these ‘statements, representations, or imputations’ upon which to base his claims. Passantino insists that this ‘suit is not based on the defamatory sting of the ensuing publication’ but rather ‘the publication of private information.’ But this assertion contradicts the whole of Passantino’s claims, which necessarily depend on the falsity of the information the Committee leaked to the media. Without that false information, Passantino cannot attribute any of the harm alleged in the Complaint to an act by the Committee.
Passantino calls his claims ‘invasion of privacy’ and ‘civil conspiracy,’ but in substance, he asserts a claim for defamation.

According to Ross, when the defamation claims from Passantino’s complaint are removed, the only remaining conduct alleged is that the Committee leaked information relating to his attorney-client relationship with Hutchinson. However, Passantino failed to clarify what that “private information” was, she wrote.

Ross further asserted that a subsequent report released by the House Committee on House Administration entitled “The Failures and Politization of the January 6th Select Committee” only “further undermined” Passantino’s claim by “showing that the private information about Passantino the Committee disclosed to the media and in a complaint to the D.C. Bar was, in fact, defamatory.”

“Passantino’s injury is ‘wholly attributable’ to the Committee’s defamatory statements — conduct expressly immunized by,” Ross wrote. “And no reading of the Complaint, even in a light most favorable to Passantino, supports Passantino’s argument that his claims are based upon ‘other independent government action.’”

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Diddy says sex civil trafficking lawsuit should be dismissed

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 13:45:04 +0000

FILE -Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs participates in “The Four” panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 4, 2018 (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File).

Defense attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs on Friday moved to dismiss a civil racketeering (RICO) lawsuit filed against him and other high-profile defendants by one of his former sound engineers.

In February, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. sued Combs for sex trafficking, drug distribution, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Also named in the lawsuit is Combs’ son, Justin Dior Combs, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., an unnamed “Rapper,” and an unnamed “R&B Singer.”

Since then, an amended complaint was filed in March and a second amended complaint was filed in April — in order to correct various deficiencies and abide by mandatory pleading standards.

Now, Combs’ lawyers say Jones anticipates filing yet another iteration of his lawsuit — and are imploring the judge overseeing the case to shut things down by dismissing the complaint entirely.

“Apparently recognizing the [second amended complaint’s] insufficiency, Jones repeatedly asks for permission to replead after the Combs Defendants’ motion is inevitably granted,” the latest Combs filing reads. “Leave to replead — in what would be his fourth complaint — should be denied as futile. Despite his efforts to supplement his pleading with new allegations in his Opposition, nothing in the Opposition suggests that Jones has additional facts to allege that would remedy the essential deficiencies of his claims.”

The defendants’ motion to dismiss was filed in August. Weeks later, after a steady drip of bad news, Combs was indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

In late September, in a hard-charging motion in opposition, Jones’ attorneys took note of the nearly-year-worth of bad press and the allegations contained in the federal indictment.

From the plaintiff’s motion [emphasis in original]:

The [court] must deny the RICO Enterprise Defendants Hail Mary Motion to Dismiss. Sean Combs (“SC”), Love Records (“LR”), Kristina Khorram (“KK”), and Combs Global Enterprises (“CGE”) (collectively, “the Combs RICO Enterprise”), the Court needs only to Google, and it would be abundantly clear that SC has zero credibility, and to quote United State President Joe Biden, he “has the morals of an alley cat.” SC is a criminally indicted, racketeering sex trafficking, illegal prostitution facilitating, accused drugs and guns dealer, accused Mexican cartel drug runner, accused murderer, and confirmed woman beater.

Attorneys for the fallen-from-grace hip-hop mogul did not appreciate the verbiage employed by his one-time record producer.

“Because Jones is unable to refute any of the Combs Defendants’ arguments for dismissal of the incoherent Second Amended Complaint, his Opposition focuses heavily on ad hominem attacks,” the defense reply memorandum reads. “For the most part, Jones does not even attempt to argue that he has pled the elements of his purported claims.”

More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Serious threats to his rights’: Diddy demands to know accusers’ identities, claims ‘many pretend victims’ are trying to cash in on ‘false to outright absurd’ allegations

The Jones filing also sought formal judicial notice for the indictment — essentially asking the court to formally acknowledge the allegations leveled by law enforcement. Specifically, the judge was asked to “notice that the indictment closely mimics Plaintiff Jones’s Second Amended Complaint.”

Combs’ attorneys aim to rubbish this effort.

“Jones impermissibly attempts to piggy-back off the Indictment to make up for the [second amended complaint’s] failure to plead any of the elements of a RICO claim,” the memo reads.

To hear the defense tell it, in each instance, Jones’ claims in the lawsuit against Combs fail on a basic, procedural level.

From the memo, at length:

His centerpiece RICO claim still fails off the bat for lack of standing because he has not pled any economic injury to himself; nor can he rely on the Indictment to make up for his failure to allege predicate acts or the numerous other requirements for this claim. His TVPA claim still fails because of his admitted inability to plead a causal link between any threat or promise and any commercial sex act. His vague assault claim against Mr. Combs fails because Jones has still not identified when, where, or how these purported acts occurred. His premises liability claims against Mr. Combs fail because he still has not alleged that any claimed assault by third parties was foreseeable or that he suffered any injury. His emotional distress claims fail because they are duplicative, because Jones does not allege the requisite negligence and “outrageous” conduct necessary to support them, and because he fails to plead any injury. And his breach of oral contract claim still fails as barred by the Statute of Frauds because it involves a royalty claim that cannot be performed within a year.

Combs, by way of his attorneys, purports to have more or less put the kibosh on Jones’ claims in his prior filings. And, the reply memorandum argues, the plaintiff should not get another chance to shore up his serially-deficient legal arguments and factual allegations.

“Jones has already amended his complaint twice and the operative pleading is 98 pages long — if he had any facts to allege against the Combs Defendants that made out a valid claim, he would (and should) have alleged them by now,” the memo concludes. “His request to file another amended pleading should be denied as futile.”

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DOJ says Trump lawsuit against Whitmer should be dismissed

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 17:21:47 +0000

Left: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump listens at a business roundtable discussion at a campaign event at Precision Components Group, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in York, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson). Right: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the NAACP Detroit branch Fight for Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Sunday, May 19, 2024 (AP Photo/Paul Sancya).

The Department of Justice on Friday said the lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her establishing new voter registration locations should be dismissed because any allegations of potential voter fraud are “highly speculative.”

Trump’s lawsuit filed in July in the U.S. District Court Western District of Michigan accuses Whitmer of illegally allowing voter registration at government agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and Small Business Administration. Whitmer, a Democrat, last year issued an executive directive to designate Saginaw VA Medical Center, the Detroit VA Medical Center and the department’s Detroit regional office as Voter Registration Agencies (VRAs).

Whitmer in her directive invoked the National Voter Registration Act which Congress passed in the early 1990s. One of its requirements is that state’s must designate registration sites at government offices in addition to local clerk’s offices. But Trump, who is joined in the lawsuit by the Republican National Committee, Michigan Republican Party and a local clerk, argues Michigan law states that the state Legislature, not the governor, are the designees of VRAs.

The former president also sued the SBA and VA. The DOJ in the 35-page motion to dismiss wrote that Trump’s lawsuit “lacks standing” because it has “failed to identify any concrete or particularized injury that flows from two Federal agencies providing nonpartisan voter registration services that many Federal, State, and local offices also provide.”

In the lawsuit, Trump claims Whitmer’s directive “undermines the integrity of elections by increasing the opportunity for individuals to register to vote even though they are ineligible to do so.” The plaintiffs claim they must “deploy their time and resources to monitor Michigan elections for fraud and abuse.”

But DOJ lawyers say the plaintiffs have provided no examples of ineligible voters being registered. From the motion:

Their argument that they will be harmed rests on the “highly speculative fear” that (1) an individual not eligible to vote in Michigan will attempt to register to vote through voter registration services offered by the VA or the SBA; (2) despite that person’s ineligibility, that person’s registration would for some reason be accepted and processed but would not have been accepted and processed had they attempted to register to vote elsewhere; (3) the person will actually vote in an election; (4) against the candidate supported by the Plaintiffs; (5) there will be a sufficient number of those votes to affect the outcome of any relevant election; and (6) all of that will occur without the ineligible voter having been discovered.

The motion says the campaign’s diversion of resources claim “misses the mark” because it is hypothetical as opposed to a reality. DOJ lawyers also argue the local clerk named as a plaintiff, Ryan Kidd of Georgetown Township, lacks standing because the lawsuit provides no examples of how adding the VRAs would be confusing to him.

“Nor do they explain how that confusion, if demonstrated, would materially affect or harm Mr. Kidd’s duties as a township clerk,” the attorneys wrote. “Presumably Mr. Kidd understands how to process registrations he receives from other voter registration agencies whose designations he does not challenge.”

Trump’s lawyers have until Friday to respond to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Elections Chief Jonathan Brater are also defendants in the lawsuit. As Law&Crime previously reported, Heather S. Meingast of the Michigan Attorney General’s Office wrote a response last month to the lawsuit.

“There is no more venerable group in America than our veterans. And small businesses are the lifeblood of many communities across our nation, including here in Michigan,” she wrote. “It is thus perplexing that Plaintiffs Republican National Committee, Michigan Republican Party, and the campaign for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, oppose Michigan’s efforts to provide voter registration services to veterans and small business owners.”

Whitmer argues the Trump’s “claims are without merit and must be dismissed for three reasons.” First, the state says since the plaintiffs claim that only state law has been violated, the Eleventh Amendment bars it from being filed in federal court. Second, the plaintiffs “have not alleged an injury in fact that is concrete and particularized under any theory.” Finally, the defendants argue that Michigan Election Law authorizes Whitmer to designate state agencies to perform voter registration services.

Meingast writes how Michigan under then Gov. John Engler, a Republican, was slow to enact the NVRA in the first place and it took federal lawsuits by voter rights groups to get the state into compliance. Ultimately the state legislature enacted the NVRA in late 1994. No new VRAs had been enacted until Whitmer’s 2023 executive order.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing state and federal agencies to work together to promote increased voter registration and participation. In response, Whitmer said it was time to “review and update” the list of VRAs and she directed Benson to work with Veterans Affairs and the SBA to establish them. Benson’s “negotiation of such agreements was consistent with her responsibility to coordinate the requirements of the NVRA,” Meingast wrote.

The state uses Trump’s unsuccessful lawsuit filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., v. Boockvar, that tried to bar voting drop boxes in the 2020 election as an argument against him.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney has yet to rule on the merits of the case other than saying the progressive Vet Voice Foundation could not intervene in the case. He said he will allow the organization to file briefs as amicus curiae in the case.

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Judge dismissed murder charges in Texas drug raid deaths

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 23:12:37 +0000

Gerald Goines, center, lied in order to justify a no-knock, which ended with officers killing an innocent couple: Rhogena Nicholas, left, and Dennis Tuttle, right. (Mug shot of Goines: Houston Police Department via AP, File; images of Nicholas and Tuttle: Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A judge quashed the murder charges against the disgraced former Houston police officer accused of lying to justify a no-knock raid that resulted in officers killing a couple in Texas.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, the officer in question, Gerald Goines, allegedly claimed in search warrant documents that he used two confidential informants to buy heroin from Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, two people falsely accused of dealing drugs.

Goines’ defense argued that the indictments were not specific about which tampering laws he violated, according to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.

“The judge considered the constitutional law and legal arguments from both sides in this case and decided that the charges or the indictments, both indictments for felony murder were constitutionally defective and so she quashed them which is a legal word for throwing them out,” Goines’ attorney Nicole DeBorde told Houston NBC affiliate KPRC. “Now we wait for the state to determine how they want to proceed, they have choices. They can either appeal the judge’s ruling or decide whether or not they want to press forward by trying to present the cases to a new grand jury.”

“Today’s actions were no more than another delay tactic by the defense,” prosecutors wrote in a statement to Law&Crime. “The Harris County District Attorney’s office is shocked and tremendously disappointed that a judge would choose to revisit this issue, knowing that her predecessor had already ruled the defendant’s position meritless. The office is considering all its options, including re-indictment, with an eye towards trying this case as soon as possible to ensure justice for the victims of these crimes.”

Tuttle and Nicholas’ neighbor, Patricia Ann Garcia, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison for the original, mendacious 911 calls that sparked the entire debacle. The caller, who had a long-running feud with the couple, falsely accused them of being armed drug dealers who had her 25-year-old daughter in their home against her will.

Another officer, Steven O. Bryant, pleaded guilty to lying to help cover up for Goines, but he has yet to be sentenced.

More Law&Crime coverage: Ex-cop Kim Potter sentenced to less than two years behind bars for killing Daunte Wright; judge says defendant was no Derek Chauvin

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