Surprise Recusal in Paul Minor Appeal Hearing

[Hissyspit]

Source: Huffington Post

Posted April 1, 2009 | 02:17 PM (EST)

A Surprise Recusal and Promising Result in Paul Minor Appeal Hearing

Paul Minor's appeal hearing in front of the 5th Circuit court this morning started off with an unexpected surprise. Shortly before the proceedings began, Priscilla Owen, one of the three judges hearing the appeal, announced her recusal.

Owen, whom the New York Times has described as "guided by the hand of Karl Rove," apparently took to heart Minor attorney Hiram Eastland's letter asking Owen to recuse herself since Rove is being investigated by Congress and the Justice Department for his possible role in targeting Minor for indictment. Owen was replaced immediately by Judge Fortunato Benavides, a Clinton appointee, adding a measure of balance to the panel, which would've been an all-Republican panel with Owen present. The appeal hearing lasted just 30 minutes but produced several key indicators that appeared to favor Paul Minor's appeal.

- snip -

The toughest questions came from Catharina Haynes, President Bush's sixth and final nominee to the Fifth Circuit who was confirmed by the Senate last April. Haynes repeatedly asked Collery, the government attorney, to specifically explain "what is the deal" that the government alleges Paul Minor had with the judges whom he was accused of bribing. Haynes pointed out that, in order to qualify as an explicit quid pro quo bribe, there had to be an agreement between Minor and the judges on a specific result, and also pointed out that Judge Teel wasn't even a judge yet, he was simply running for the judgeship at the time Minor contributed to his campaign, so how could there be a specific official action offered by Teel to Minor in return when Minor couldn't possibly have had any cases pending before Teel.

Asked again and again to supply a concrete example of what that crucial quid pro quo was, the DOJ attorney seemed to waffle badly, arguing (again, with "vague" charges as the New York Times described this case originally) that Minor's campaign contributions must've been meant as bribes for some "future decisions" in his favor from the Judges. Haynes, clearly understanding the requirement that there must be a specific official act in return for the contribution in order to constitute bribery, asked the DOJ attorney, "Don't you have to be able to articulate the deal?"

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/a-surprise-recusal-and-pr_b_181864.html

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Astonishing ...........

A judge recusing herself is always news. That it's a Rove-connected judge makes it newsworthy, especially in a politically-charged matter.

Interesting.

It seems to me that things are changing so fast, almost daily. And they're changing in the proper way..............

[elleng]

2. She should NEVER have been on that panel!

Hope I NEVER have to go to Mississippi!

[karynnj]

3. She was one of the judges that were blocked

until the "gang of 14" made their deal. Their deal was that they would stay together as a block and would limit severely when they would filibuster to save the right to filibuster - but, in Alito's case, which was as clear an example of when the gang should have moved en masse to filibuster - they of course didn't.

[EFerrari]

4. Kick

[Robbien]

5. Paul Minor finally got a break

It is hard to believe he finally gets a chance at a real court hearing.

Great news.

[L. Coyote]

6. We are still far from addressing how corrupt appointments to the bench have been for 8 yrs

Who got on the bench during the Bush Junta, and in particular under what screening criteria,
remains to be properly addressed. This sort of action may offer some ray of hope, but it is
very far from real attention to the real problem of the past 8 years, junta politicization.

[bleever]

7. Here's Larisa's RawStory article on it:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Roveconnected_judge_recuses_self_from_Minor_0401.html

[merh]

8. I'm posting that in GD

:)

:hi:

[bleever]

9. Good job,

you. :hi:

:batusismilie:

[merh]

10. it has fallen like a stone

but I posted it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5380818&mesg_id=5380818

thank you, you beautiful believer you :hug: