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Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
FEATURED
January 7, 2025
Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
By: James Trusty
A Florida Judge may have unwittingly ushered in a new age of criminal justice, where slickly made virtual reality (“VR”) presentations turn judges and jurors into witnesses, and VR headsets provide subjective “testimony” in a powerful and difficult to challenge manner. Broward County Judge Andrew Siegel agreed to don a virtual reality headset in a preliminary proceeding[1] where the defendant was accused of aggravated assault. Miguel Albisu, the defendant, was accused of waving a gun at wedding guests and he claims self-defense. The defense hired an artist to create a “defendant’s perspective,” and the result is a historical first—the judge took in a defense expert’s testimony about self-defense that included a guided tour of the reality contained on a VR…
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
December 6, 2024
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
By: James Trusty
As the presiding judge scolded Hunter Biden’s attorneys this week, “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”[1] But what exactly is that history he claims is being re-written? Judge Scarsi was challenging…
Supremely Improbable
July 30, 2024
Supremely Improbable
By: James Trusty
President Biden’s pronounced objectives for Supreme Court “reform” are improbable, politically lifeless under a particularly lame duck presidency, and motivated by transparently November-driven calculations. But even if the proposed changes are doomed from the start, they push public discourse on a couple of issues that are red meat for the democrats. The stated reforms are superficially simple ones: 1) to “clarify” that “there is no…
National Media Turns to Jim Trusty for Authoritative Opinions on the Country’s Most Important Investigations and Prosecutions
September 24, 2018
National Media Turns to Jim Trusty for Authoritative Opinions on the Country’s Most Important Investigations and Prosecutions
By: Ifrah Law
Ifrah Law partner Jim Trusty has become a staple in the national news lately: he is frequently asked to comment on the many investigations and prosecutions currently going on which involve former and current officials and operatives at the highest levels of government. With over 28 years of experience as a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice and deep knowledge of white collar criminal…
ICOs Involving Non-Issued Cryptocurrency May Be Prosecuted Under Federal Securities Laws
September 19, 2018
ICOs Involving Non-Issued Cryptocurrency May Be Prosecuted Under Federal Securities Laws
By: Jeffrey Hamlin
This week, a federal district court in New York was the first to decide that federal securities laws may be used to prosecute fraud involving cryptocurrencies. In United States v. Zaslavskiy, Eastern District Judge Raymond Dearie held that the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 (“Exchange Act”) and Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) are broad enough to cover representations made in connection with virtual currency…
How to Raise Capital Through Registration Exempt ICOs
May 15, 2018
How to Raise Capital Through Registration Exempt ICOs
By: Jeff Ifrah
The SEC has strongly indicated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be treated as securities, and thus must comply with various registration and disclosure requirements before being used to raise capital. Companies do have, however, several options for possible exemptions from the regulatory requirements that apply to registered public offerings. This chart outlines potential exemptions to the regulatory requirements for ICOs and the criteria for…
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to Make First Supreme Court Appearance in Sentencing Case, Even as Rumors Continue to Swirl of Potential Firing
April 23, 2018
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to Make First Supreme Court Appearance in Sentencing Case, Even as Rumors Continue to Swirl of Potential Firing
By: Ifrah Law
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be arguing before the Supreme Court today for the first time in his nearly thirty-year government career even as rumors abound that Donald Trump is talking about firing him to cut off investigations into his administration’s Russia ties. Although the United States is usually represented before the Supreme Court by the Solicitor General, it is not uncommon for…
Congress Passes the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017
March 26, 2018
Congress Passes the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017
By: Jeffrey Hamlin
As of March 21, 2018, both chambers of Congress have approved H.R. 1865—the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA). In a rare show of bipartisanship, both Houses approved the bill with veto-proof majorities—the House by a vote of 388 to 25 and the Senate by a vote of 97 to 2. But some free-speech advocates, internet-law experts, and…
