Posted on 05/07/2018 1:54:56 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
If youve been following along with the legal twists and turns of the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, you know that one of the more interesting aspects was the indictment of 13 Russian citizens and three Russian businesses on crimes related to interference in the 2016 presidential election. Conventional wisdom has generally been that none of these entities would ever make an appearance or otherwise acknowledge the proceedings. However, one of the Russian businesses, Concord Management, has tapped a Biglaw firm to rep them in court.
Concord Management has hired Reed Smith as their legal team. Partners Eric A. Dubelier (who according to his firm profile has a practice that focuses on international and domestic regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, white-collar criminal litigation, and civil false claims litigation) and Katherine J. Seikaly (her practice is in government and internal investigations, regulatory compliance and enforcement matters, and related litigation, with particular focus on the False Claims Act (FCA)) made their appearance on behalf of Concord Management last month. Theyve made a bunch of discovery requests seeking non-public information - and, as Politico reports, the requests seem to be a calculated move:
[T[he move appeared to be a bid to force Muellers team to turn over relevant evidence to the Russian firm and perhaps even to bait prosecutors into an embarrassing dismissal in order to avoid disclosing sensitive information.
The prosecution tried to delay the arraignment, saying it was unclear if Concord Management had been properly served. They sought additional briefing on the question of proper service, and additionally brought up concerns that the three businesses indicted are thought to be run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, also indicted in his individual capacity, and known as Vladimir Putins chef.
Until the Court has an opportunity to determine if Concord was properly served, it would be inadvisable to conduct an initial appearance and arraignment at which important rights will be communicated and a plea entertained, attorneys Jeannie Rhee, Rush Atkinson and Ryan Dickey wrote. That is especially true in the context of this case, which involves a foreign corporate defendant, controlled by another, individual foreign defendant, that has already demanded production of sensitive intelligence gathering, national security, and foreign affairs information.
The team from Reed Smith disputed the delay - and used a fancy SAT vocab word to make their point:
Defendant voluntarily appeared through counsel as provided for in [federal rules], and further intends to enter a plea of not guilty. Defendant has not sought a limited appearance nor has it moved to quash the summons. As such, the briefing sought by the Special Counsels motion is pettifoggery, Dubelier and Seikaly wrote.
See, thats the kind of quality a Biglaw firm bring to the table.
And it seems U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed the governments position was pettifoggery. On Saturday, he ordered, with no further explanation, that the Wednesday arraignment would continue as scheduled.
Concord Managements decision to go with Reed Smith is already paying dividends.
pettifoggery:
quibble about petty points.
synonyms: minor criticism · trivial objection · trivial complaint · adverse comment ·
practice legal deception or trickery.
I had to look it up
VERB
archaic
quibble about petty points.
synonyms: minor criticism · trivial objection · trivial
complaint · adverse comment · [more]
practice legal deception or trickery.
I won’t pettifog you if you don’t pettifog me. :)
Napoleon, Hitler, now Mueller bogged down on the Russian front.
Fro the record.....
pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)
Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.
An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
Can’t wait to see Ferret Mueller shot down in court time and time again over the next few years.
I hope they win just to show everyone what a witch hunt this truly is.
LANGUAGE WARNING - Loads of F-bombs and other cursing.
It's an awesome dissection in spite of the language.
The Mueller Indictments Are A F**king Joke & It's Dangerous [Web Exclusive] (15:09)
The bottom line is this company in Russia is a click-bait farm. They had no interest in interfering with our election or creating any chaos here.
It exists to make money through the cyber equivalent of creating and selling client lists.
I think mueller has more of a rat-like feature to his mug. With his close set, slightly protruding eyeballs, his pointed, seemingly quivering nose, and tiny, pursed mouth.
mueller’s noted ability to expertly navigate the lower gutters and sewers seeking dregs of filth, also reeks of rat-hoodism.
But that’s just my opinion.
I’ll take some pettifoggery with my covfefe, please.
Love that ID
Pettifogger
An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.
especially one of lesser skill.
Well played sir!
Alleging improper service is a common defense claim in civil actions. I’ve never seen a plaintiff or prosecutor make the claim that they’d done it wrong.
Sounds like the federal versions of Nifong are getting desperate. Maybe they need to ask Reyna to mentor their team, since Nifong is currently unavailable.
Ahhhhh...
He has that same creepy look that John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, has.
Mueller did, too.
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