Afternoon briefs: Search of Giuliani's home is 'legal thuggery,' says his lawyer; top legal officer earns $50.9M
Rudy Giuliani. Image from Shutterstock.
Search of Giuliani’s home is ‘legal thuggery,’ his lawyer says
Federal agents searched lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s New York City apartment and office early Wednesday. Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, told the New York Times the searches were “legal thuggery” and unnecessary. Costello said his client had offered to answer prosecutors’ questions, except for inquiries about his privileged communications with former President Donald Trump. “Why would you do this to anyone, let alone someone who was the associate attorney general, United States attorney, the mayor of New York City and the personal lawyer to the 45th president of the United States?” Costello said. The searches reportedly relate to Giuliani’s Ukraine dealings and possible undisclosed lobbying for Ukrainian officials. (The New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN)
Top Alphabet lawyer’s compensation package valued at $50.9M
Alphabet chief legal officer J. Kent Walker Jr. had a total compensation package valued at $50.9 million last year last year, according to a proxy statement cited by Bloomberg Law. Walker’s base salary was $655,000, but his stock awards were valued at more than $50 million. The awards will vest over four years. (Bloomberg Law)
Chicago sues Indiana gun store for alleged illegal sales
The city of Chicago has sued a Gary, Indiana, gun store for allegedly selling guns to purchasers who resell them to felons and drug traffickers. The April 26 suit says Westforth Sports knowingly and illegally sells its guns to “an ever-changing roster of gun traffickers and straw (sham) purchasers.” A law enforcement study found that between 2009 and 2016, Westforth was the highest out-of-state supplier of guns recovered by police. The suit alleges the gun store is a public nuisance, violates a municipal cost recovery ordinance, was negligent and had negligently entrusted firearms to traffickers. (The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-times, the Cook County, Illinois, lawsuit)
Juvenile who won case in SCOTUS gets same sentence
An Alabama inmate sentenced to life without parole for a murder at the age of 14 has gotten the same sentence in a new hearing. The inmate, Evan Miller, got a new sentencing hearing on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his case in 2012 that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional. The high court ruled in 2016 that its Miller holding applied retroactively. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court did not extend the holdings when it ruled that a judge doesn’t have to make a finding of permanent incorrigibility before imposing a life-without-parole-sentence for a juvenile who kills. In the hearing on Tuesday, Judge Mark Craig acknowledged that Miller had been beaten as a youth and had tried to kill himself several times. He also said Miller had thrived in a highly structured setting. But Craig said Miller was the aggressor in the homicide, and he had made a chilling statement when he told his victim, “I am God, I’ve come to take your life.” (AL.com)
ICE will limit courthouse arrests of immigrants
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement will be arresting fewer immigrants at courthouses as a result of a policy announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Civil immigration arrests will be allowed at courthouses only in circumstances involving national security, an imminent risk of death or physical harm, the hot pursuit of an individual who threatens public safety, or an imminent risk of destruction of evidence in a criminal case. The policy is a switch from the Trump administration. which had expanded courthouse immigration arrests. The ABA came out against those courthouse arrests in routine immigration cases in 2017. (BuzzFeed News, Law360, DHS press release)
