Law

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.

His decision to plead guilty to misdemeanour and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors, caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father, Joe Biden’s political career.

Interesting bit of American legal trivia. A President usually announces a list of pardons and commutations on his last day in office. One of the rules about such is that only cases which are finally finished can be so pardoned or the sentences commuted.

Jus’ Sayin’

A seven-year row between three brothers and their sister over their mother’s £1 million inheritance is “out of control”, a High Court judge has said.

David, Nino and Remo Rea have fought with their sister Rita Rea, a tennis coach, since 2017, after their mother Anna Rea left her daughter her home, which made up nearly all her fortune.

A million quid!

handing her the £1 million house in South London at the centre of the battle.

That’s a two up two down terrace these days, no? Seems a bit indelicate to be snarling about such trivia, no?

Anyway, the lawyers will have eaten it all already:

David, Nino and Remo Rea have fought with their sister Rita Rea, a tennis coach, since 2017, after their mother Anna Rea left her daughter her home, which made up nearly all her fortune.

The case has been through the courts five times, running up massive legal bills.

No, that’s gone.

In Rotherham, a hotel used to house asylum seekers was set ablaze, and another in Tamworth was targeted by anti-immigration protesters.

In Bolton, Muslim groups shouting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with far-Right rioters.

A mob in Middlesbrough shouted “smash the p—s” and “there ain’t no black in the Union Jack” while targeting the homes of migrants, while footage on social media from elsewhere in the city appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white men.

“‘Ee started it!” is not in fact a defence in law. Not unless you use only that violence necessary to stop the attack and thereby ensure your own safety. That is, that over here there’s a mob attacking non’Anglo Saxons is not a defence for those non-Anglos Saxons attacking Anglo Saxons 500 yards away.

Both or either are equally guilty of assaulty, GBH, riot, whatever.

Which does lead to that interesting question. Are the police and courts going to treat them the same way?

Even, which way will a former DPP tell everyone to jump?

Obviously, creating kiddie porn is worse than looking at it. Creating is the direct abuse of a kids to make the porn, right?

The man who shared indecent images of children with Huw Edwards, the former BBC presenter, received a suspended prison sentence in March this year after pleading guilty to seven offences, police have confirmed.

Alex Williams, 25, from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, shared the images with Edwards via WhatsApp.

Scotland Yard arrested Edwards in November last year after receiving information from colleagues in South Wales Police.

An examination of a phone seized by officers revealed Edwards’ participation in a WhatsApp conversation.

Right.

Huw Edwards, once the BBC’s most senior news presenter, has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

He admitted having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Eh? He received images – bad, criminal etc – but was charged with creating?

Ah, but you see……the image exists, but loading it into a browser – no really – means there are now two copies, server and browser. So that’s porn creation, see?

#At which point we can think one of two things. Either those who created the legislation didn;t understand how the common law interprets “creation” or they did and decided not to care. Which is worse is up to you.

Anjem Choudary jailed for at least 28 years over terror offences

UK should stop arming Israel after ICJ advisory ruling, top lawyer says
Exclusive: Philippe Sands KC says non-binding opinion will nevertheless be seen as ‘authoritative statement of law’

What did Mr. Sands say about selling arms to Israel before the court ruling? If it was already that such sales should stop then the court ruling hsa made no difference, has it?

If Trump v United States, the US supreme court majority’s shocking immunity decision on 1 July, left anyone unconvinced that America’s courts are on the ballot, federal judge Aileen Cannon just sealed the deal, dropping a sledgehammer on the rule of law. Just two weeks after the disgraceful immunity decision, she tossed out Trump’s prosecution for stealing national security documents after losing re-election, smashing the longstanding and vital authority of special counsels in the bargain.

This election, our constitutional republic is at stake, along with its first principle: no one, including the most powerful, is above the law. Only We, the People, can preserve the freedom and security our laws safeguard.

The finding was that the manner of appointment and funding of the office were unconstitutional. Now, that may be right and it may be wrong – I’ve no idea myself. But whatever else it is it’s an affirmation of the constitutional nature of the Republic, no?

Conversion therapy will be banned under a new law to be announced in the King’s Speech.

Sir Keir Starmer will push ahead with a ban at the first opportunity by including the proposals in Labour’s legislative agenda for its first year in office, to be set out on Wednesday.

The move comes despite fears that outlawing the practice, which attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, would risk criminalising parents who try to help children who think they are trans.

Strapping someone down, Clockwork Orange-style, might not even work let alone be morally permissible. And so , OK, illegal then.

Being anything less than wholly supportive would be seen by some as an attempt to deter the conversion.

So, what’s the definition of conversion therapy then?

Labour is considering plans that would see “mini-prisons” built across the country to fix the “broken” justice system.

But taking us back to the 18th century with the local prison might be a step too far even for me.

Plus, obvioiusly, economies of scale etc etc. It most certainly won’t be cheaper…..

Water companies that dump raw sewage into Britain’s waterways can now be sued for damages and held accountable, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

Judges found that a private company that own canals, rivers or lakes can take legal action against any business that pollutes its water with untreated sewage.

Manchester Canal Company has been in a legal battle since 2018 with United Utilities about the latter’s ability to pump raw sewage into the canal without the permission of the owner.

Is any of Scotland’s water privately owned? Wales’s? Because it would be so much fun to gin up some prosecutions there, no?

A few comments from an earlier post. Which are not, shall we say, wholly and entirely totally and only fact based. There might be a modicum of opinion involved.

Background, a rape case. After sentencing one random woman gobbed off a few insults at one of those convicted. The rapist wasn’t jailed. The rando woman was.

But:

……The rape victim was 14 I think. A gang of cultural enrichment raped her, and filmed it. They found dna from eight of them inside her. None went to jail. A country which doesn’t punish such animals but does jail another woman who points out that they’re animals is teetering on the brink of extinction or lynchings.

…..And yes the girl was a teenager, 14 I believe, accosted and held down in a park and repeatedly vaginally raped, and ejaculated in, over the course of around 2 hours, by an indeterminate number, but at least 8, sickos, a minority of whom “held German citizenship”, all but one of whom received discharges or suspended sentences for their regrettably inadequate understanding of how one makes and accepts rejection of sexual advances in Germany, due to not being Germans.

…..Nothing can be stretched beyond its limit of elasticity.

That limit will be reached here, unless the powers reverse course. Immediately. The reaction to breaching that limit will involve more than piano wire and lampposts.

You perhaps have to be here to feel the resentment, the visceral disgust, at this kind of double miscarriage of justice, very close under the surface of what remains of German civil society. None of us want to see German uncivil society ever again. Except perhaps those who are in power and trying to instigate it.

The thing is, it doesn’t even matter whether the sentence for the rapist was right, that for the gobby lass. As anyone who’s done any politics knows, – hell, anyone who’s ever been in a crowd – the look of things matters.

Yer wha?

It’s a very, very, powerful cause and motivation in human affairs. Which does seem to be forgotten by some.

Calling female colleagues “guys” is a microaggression that can be reported to managers, staff at a top City law firm have been warned.

Hogan Lovells is cracking down on perceived discrimination with a new reporting system for so-called microaggressions.

Microaggressions are intentional or unintentional acts or subtle slights that can lead to employees feeling marginalised.

Hogan Lovells is relying upon a list of microaggressions that include saying “you’re pretty strong for a girl”, referring to a mixed-gender group as “guys” and describing younger colleagues as “kids” or “babies”.

Other examples include assuming an older colleague is technologically challenged, using “heteronormative language without considering diverse identities” and using “ableist language without awareness”.

The Anglo-American law firm – which is the sixth biggest in the world – has told UK staff that they can now anonymously report any microaggressions to be “reviewed internally”.

Ah, Americans. They always are so enthusiastic. Whatever it is it’s always done to excess. Like puppies, really.

A barrister has been banned for 12 months after punching a fashion designer during a performance of Wagner at the Royal Opera House.

Matthew Feargrieve was suspended by a disciplinary tribunal on Wednesday after being accused of professional misconduct.

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) accused Mr Feargrieve of breaching his core duty by behaving in a way that was likely to diminish the trust and confidence the public places in the profession.

Significant sections of society would have their confidence in the profession enhanced if more did punch fashion designers.

Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. What is Biden’s next move?

Yes, yes, they mean “How does Biden react” not “How does Biden twist and pervert the course of justice once again”.

Well, probably they do.

Alito’s flag shows the US supreme court is neither honorable nor functional any more
Moira Donegan
The upside-down flag at the justice’s house after the Capitol attack reveals how disgraceful our supreme court has become

The left, the progressives, the woike, the Blob, whatever you want to call it – they’re realising that they made a big, big, mistake. They took their eye off the appointment of judges.

No, not just the Supremes, the Federal judiciary as a whole – and the right started to colonise it.

Oh well, bad political strategy etc. But that has meant the Supremes ending up not being progressive, woke etc.

Which is where they’re getting desperate. At which point the wife of a judge, Alito, flew the US flag upside down. This is such a scandal that Alito must recuse himself, resign, commit hari kari, summat. As if women are not strong and independent these days but are mere accoutrements of their husbands.

Ho hum.

There’sactually a guy out there quite seriously proposing that Alito committed an ethics violation. Because some months after the Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney thing started to happen he sold (perhaps $10k’s worth, that sort of number) his Bud stock and bought Coors instead. This shows that he’s ideologically inclined against trans, see? Inmstead of being a little late on what everyone could see, that the row wsa going to damage Bud sales and thus the stock value.

They really are desperate, desperate……

The flying of the pro-Trump, pro-coup flag is in clear violation of the ethics rules that apply to federal judges.

Sigh. As to this:

a controversy arose over why, precisely, those ethics rules have never extended to the supreme court justices.

Get a fucking clue Moira. The division of powers, separation of them, mean anything to you?

The justices did not elect, however, to make the new ethics code in any way enforceable for themselves. They’re not rules that can be enforced; they’re guidelines that can be – and are – ignored.

If someone else – anyone else – gets to enforce rules against the Supremes then the Supremes are not independent of those other powers.

JC onna pogo stick they’re desperate.

Rupert Murdoch is suing ITV and ITN for using a video released by The Sun of the Princess of Wales at a farm shop in Windsor.

Mr Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), which publishes the tabloid title, has filed an intellectual property claim against ITV and ITN, which produces ITV News programmes.

The claim is understood to relate to footage of the Prince and Princess of Wales at a farm shop in Windsor in March.

The footage, which was obtained exclusively by The Sun, was the first time the Princess had been seen since undergoing major abdominal surgery at a London hospital in January. The Princess has since revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer.

The Sun is thought to be seeking a five-figure sum in compensation for alleged copyright breach after ITV News used the clip in its own coverage.

By definition piccies and videos belong to the person operating the camera. What happens after that depends upon hte contractual obligations.

News organisations often use their rivals’ work under the fair dealing copyright exemption, which affords legal protection if the material is used for the reporting of current events and there is sufficient attribution to the original owner.

However, use can be deemed unfair if it causes the owner to lose revenues or if the amount of the original material taken is considered to be unreasonable or inappropriate.

Hmm, never have thought much of that.

Solicitors at an elite family law firm made a computer error that resulted in the wrong couple being divorced — and a senior judge has refused to overturn the mistake.

Umm……

On Monday morning, Willoughby tweeted:

I want you all to think for a moment what the equivalent racial or religious insults would be to what I am being called today. Triggered by JK Rowling – which has encouraged some national broadcasters to join in. All deliberately misgendering me. Disgrace. @northumbriapol

— India Willoughby (@IndiaWilloughby) March 18, 2024

1) We’re not misgendering, simply descrobing reality.

2) Even if we we’re we’re allowed to.

Jeremy Corbyn has threatened to take legal action against Nigel Farage over a “highly defamatory statement”.

The former Labour leader, who now sits as an independent MP, said he could not let “disgusting and malicious lies go unchallenged”.

A statement from Mr Corbyn’s team alleged that the former Brexit Party leader had “accused Jeremy Corbyn of subscribing to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory”.

Really, what could you say that might make Jezza look anti-semitic?

Last week, the debate over Biden’s fitness to govern exploded after the release of a report by Trump-appointed special counsel Robert Hur which cleared him of illegally keeping classified documents at his home, but included an instantly memorable description of the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”, and claimed that he did not remember “even within several years” when his son Beau died.

We can disregard this because it’s from a Trump appointee.

Which, you know, isn’t quite the case. He was appointed, during the Trump admin, to his position in Maryland, yes:

On November 1, 2017, Hur was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.[6] On March 22, 2018, his nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote.[7] He was confirmed by voice vote later the same day.[8] He was sworn in on April 9, 2018.

And, yes, Federal DAs are appointed by the Pres, confirmed by the Senate. But not all of them are ideologically placed.

But in the current mess, this is the important thing:

On January 12, 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur to oversee the United States Department of Justice’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents during his time as vice president.

This was an appointment by Biden’s Admin to investigate Biden’s Admin.

There’s a quite deliberate attempt going on to memory hole that distinction.