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Baltimoronic Investigation
FEATURED
July 8, 2025
Baltimoronic Investigation
By: James Trusty
June 24, 2025, may mark the day that the criminal justice system for Baltimore, Maryland finally established its lunacy. If the allegations are correct, an employee of Pretrial Services committed what Maryland officials view as a cardinal sin—he or she let ICE know that there was an illegal alien coming to the office. Armed with that information, ICE showed up at the courthouse, was allowed up to the 4th floor, and arrested an illegal alien. There are no allegations of disruption to the Pretrial Services office, no suggestion that the arrest caused a courthouse-wide panic, and no lawyers rushed to microphones to announce the alien had been tortured, beaten, and shipped off to a Salvadoran prison. But the Baltimore City…
Biden and DOJ’s Spiteful Ploy Boomerangs: How Politics Destroys Privilege
June 30, 2025
Biden and DOJ’s Spiteful Ploy Boomerangs: How Politics Destroys Privilege
By: James Trusty
During the pre-indictment period in which I was one of President Trump’s lawyers, there was a considerable amount of then-sealed litigation over the Special Counsel Office’s (“SCO”) insatiable search for incriminating evidence. We regularly found ourselves fighting against prosecutors providing ex parte information to the Court in support of their singular claims that Donald J. Trump did not have the same legal privileges as almost…
AI Conversations Feel Private. Could They Be Privileged?
June 11, 2025
AI Conversations Feel Private. Could They Be Privileged?
By: Robert Ward
The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI continues to spark debate, and not just about copyright. Most recently, a federal magistrate judge ordered OpenAI to preserve chats that the company might otherwise have deleted at a user’s request. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that it may be time for a version of the attorney-client or physician-patient privilege, but for AI. While any attempt…
Good News: The Feds Can’t Freeze Your Assets to Stop You from Hiring a Lawyer
April 15, 2016
Good News: The Feds Can’t Freeze Your Assets to Stop You from Hiring a Lawyer
By: Nicole Kardell
Republished with permission from FEE.org, originally published April 12, 2016 There are limits to what the government can take from you. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Constitution forbids the government from freezing a defendant’s “untainted” assets in advance of prosecution. The ruling is a significant victory for those caught in the government’s crosshairs. It is also a significant victory for a traditional concept of…
Online Poker: A New Way to Bank?
March 30, 2016
Online Poker: A New Way to Bank?
By: Steven Eichorn
In light of Tax Day (note that it’s on the 18th of April this year due to a holiday on the 15th) we want to point out a curious ramification from a federal case concerning online gambling, tax reports, and foreign accounts. In United States v. Hom [1], the defendant, John C. Hom, was an online poker player who had money in player accounts situated…
Even Bad Guys Have Rights
March 7, 2016
Even Bad Guys Have Rights
By: Nicole Kardell
This article first appeared February 29, 2016, on FEE.org – you can access this version here. Remember Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” notorious for raising the price of his company’s life-saving drug by some 5,000 percent? Did you know he was recently arrested for securities fraud (completely unrelated to the drug hike)? It didn’t take long for the Justice Department to go after the universally unpopular…
Police Make iPhone Public Enemy No. 1
February 26, 2016
Police Make iPhone Public Enemy No. 1
By: Ifrah Law
FBI Director James Comey took a rare break from the posturing typical of investigators and prosecutors in the current showdown between Apple and the FBI. While prosecutors argue that Apple’s privacy concerns are a smokescreen to avoid “assist[ing] the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack,” Comey posted a statement over the weekend in which he took the position that the tension between security…
FBI Recruits Apple to Help Unlock Your iPhone
February 19, 2016
FBI Recruits Apple to Help Unlock Your iPhone
By: Ifrah Law
It is a well-known maxim that “bad facts make bad law.” And as anybody even casually browsing social media this week likely has seen, the incredibly tragic facts surrounding the San Bernadino attacks last December have led to a ruling that jeopardizes the privacy rights of all law-abiding Americans. First, it is important to clearly understand the ruling. After the horrific attack in San Bernadino…