Trump

Boston lawyer who was considered for Massachusetts U.S. Attorney appointed as a lead prosecutor at The Hague

June 6, 2023 by pkzadmin

A Boston lawyer who was one of the final names being considered for the U.S. Attorney role in Massachusetts, before Rachael Rollins was ultimately picked and later resigned in disgrace, has been appointed as the top prosecutor at The Hague for the Kosovo war crimes tribunal.

Kim West, a partner at Ashcroft Law Firm in Boston, was recently selected as the Specialist Prosecutor at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague, Netherlands.

West was one of the high-profile local lawyers who were being looked at as the replacement for Andrew Lelling to lead the Bay State U.S. Attorney’s Office. Rollins, the Suffolk County district attorney at the time, was later picked as U.S. Attorney — and she recently resigned following bombshell investigative reports from two federal watchdog agencies.

Instead of the experienced and accomplished West running the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office, she’s now heading to the European Union-backed court.

“I am extremely grateful to the European Union for selecting me for this position,” West said in a statement. “My colleagues at Ashcroft Law Firm know that my passion has long been centered around international investigations. They recognized that this is an opportunity of a lifetime, and have all been very supportive.

“This new role allows me to continue working with victims, witnesses, and the international community to ensure that perpetrators of war crimes are brought to justice,” West added.

She began her legal career as assistant district attorney in Plymouth County. Then after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she joined the Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit at the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Later, she served for five years as a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where she prosecuted Radovan Karadzic — who was found guilty of directing the genocide of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in the worst massacre on European soil since the Holocaust.

Then as chief of the Criminal Bureau for the Attorney General’s Office in Massachusetts, West supervised a team of more than 120 professionals responsible for investigating and prosecuting a range of financial, fraud, public corruption, narcotics, gaming, human trafficking, and other offenses.

West at Ashcroft Law Firm has focused on white-collar cases, primarily representing international clients.

“We are immensely proud of her achievements and grateful for the contributions she has made to our firm,” said Michael Sullivan, managing partner of Ashcroft Law Firm’s Boston office. “People from around the world have sought her help because of her empathy and commitment to international justice and accountability. Those same characteristics will guide her in her new position.”

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the firm’s founder and chairman, said of West, “Her appointment to the European Union-backed court is not at all surprising because her career has been defined by a dedication to justice on a global scale. We are sad to be losing Kim as our colleague, but by selecting her for this key position, the international community has chosen the ideal steward to oversee the important responsibilities of investigating war crimes in Kosovo.”

Massachusetts nurses call for independent Presidential Federal COVID-19 Committee

February 8, 2022 by pkzadmin

The Massachusetts Nurses Association is joining national calls for the creation of an independent Presidential Federal COVID-19 Committee to replace the task force disbanded at the end of the Trump administration.

The local nurses union signed on to letters to the Biden White House and Senate leaders as the omicron variant has overwhelmed hospitals across the country.

“Hospitalizations are reaching an all-time high and our healthcare system is on the verge of collapsing, with some patients needing urgent care not able to promptly obtain it,” the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Health Watch USA, and National Nurses United wrote to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“In addition, state reporting of SARS-CoV-2 infections has become erratic,” the groups wrote to the White House and Senate. “Our country’s response to the COVID crisis has been reactive, lacking in transparency, and derailed by infighting and political divides.”

In Massachusetts, the omicron variant led to a massive surge in cases and hospitalizations. Both infection tallies and COVID patient counts are now falling in the Bay State, but COVID deaths remain high following the omicron spike in hospitalizations.

In the joint letter to the White House and Senate, the groups highlighted a few key reasons why there needs to be an independent Presidential Federal COVID-19 Committee.

“Public trust of government agencies is in decline,” they wrote. “Therefore, policy based solely on advising from federal employees is likely to be met with more resistance than policy formed by an independent committee.

“There has been a lack of transparency concerning data collection and policy making,” the groups added. “It appears that data from the Health Ministry of Israel and Public Health England has been used to guide policy. While data from elsewhere in the world can be useful for forming policy, citizens need to understand how U.S. data forms U.S. policy.”

In January, the local nurses sent Gov. Charlie Baker a letter seeking immediate action to safeguard front-line caregivers, patients and communities during the omicron surge.

“Two years into this pandemic, we are now at a place we all feared,” MNA President Katie Murphy wrote to the governor. “Healthcare workers are overwhelmed and burned out. Healthcare facilities are overrun with both COVID-19 patients and those individuals who delayed care throughout the pandemic, and the system is buckling under the pressure. We are closer than we have ever been to the collapse of the healthcare system.”

Charlie Baker, moderate Republicans blast RNC censure on Capitol insurrection

February 7, 2022 by pkzadmin

Gov. Charlie Baker along with other moderate Republicans are blasting the leaders of their own party after a vote by the Republican National Committee declared the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, “legitimate political discourse.”

“The Governor commends anyone who is willing to step forward and tell the truth, and disagrees with this vote. He has been clear that the January 6th riot was a violent insurrection and a sad day for democracy,” Baker said through adviser Jim Conroy.

Gubernatorial candidate and former state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, distanced himself from the RNC moves, saying he “condemned violence in the street.”

But Diehl targeted Attorney General Maura Healey, who is the likely Democratic nominee in the governor’s race, with his comments.

“Unlike Attorney General Healey, who saw riots, looting and murders in 2020 as how America could “grow,” I don’t believe street violence or desecration of American symbols and institutions constitute a legitimate form of discourse.”

The RNC at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City on Friday also voted to censure Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the committee investigating Jan. 6.

The censure accuses Cheney and Kinzinger of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution.”

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel denied that the “legitimate political discourse” wording referred to the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of Trump. She said it had to do with other actions taken by the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021. But the resolution drew no such distinction.

The censure assailed the panel, including Cheney and Kinzinger, for leading a “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Cheney, R-Wyoming, tweeted a video shortly after the Friday vote that featured clips of violence from the Jan. 6th insurrection with the caption, “This was January 6th. This is not ‘legitimate political discourse.’”

Kinzinger, R-Illinois, released a statement saying “I am now even more committed to fighting conspiracies and lies.”

Cheney and Kinzinger are the two sole Republican members on the bipartisan House committee investigating the insurrection.

In addition to Baker, the RNC moves drew swift rebuke from other moderate GOP members.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a tweet, “It’s a sad day for my party—and the country—when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.”

Former Massachusetts governor, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said in a tweet, “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”

Material from Herald wire services contributed to this report.

Allen Weisselberg, Trump accountant, surrenders to New York prosecutors

July 1, 2021 by pkzadmin

NEW YORK – Allen Weisselberg, former President Trump’s longtime accountant and keeper of his financial secrets, surrendered to New York prosecutors on Thursday morning to face criminal charges.

News cameras caught the 73-year-old Weisselberg entering the Manhattan courthouse. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Weisselberg and the Trump Organization were reportedly indicted on Wednesday, and the indictments are expected to be unsealed on Thursday. The specific charges have not been released, but the investigation has focused on alleged tax violations related to unreported compensation.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been scrutinizing the Trump Organization for years, even obtaining the former president’s closely guarded tax returns in February after a legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump left his eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and Weisselberg in charge of the company during his time in the White House. Still, a conviction for his namesake company in the criminal case could damage the elder Trump’s financial future, further undermining his ability to find business partners and obtain loans from banks. The indictment also may not be the end of his legal troubles.

The Manhattan district attorney has been working with the New York state attorney general, who is also probing whether Trump improperly inflated the value of his properties to obtain loans or deflated them to avoid taxes.

Trump remains a powerful figure in the Republican Party and has flirted with the possibility of running for president again.

He’s accused prosecutors of pursuing a political “witch hunt,” saying they were “in search of a crime” and investigating “things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Mike Pence speaks to New Hampshire Republicans, bashes Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi: ‘Enough is enough’

June 3, 2021 by pkzadmin

Former Vice President Mike Pence in his first trip back to New Hampshire since he was VP slammed the Biden administration, telling fellow Republicans that “enough is enough.”

The former VP also pushed for the Granite State to keep the nation’s first presidential primary.

“We will never let Nancy Pelosi take the first-in-the-nation primary from New Hampshire,” Pence said during a Granite State GOP fundraiser Thursday evening, drawing a huge round of applause as he slammed the Democrats’ voting bill.

Pence was the featured speaker at the annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner hosted by the Hillsborough County Republicans in Manchester.

“After 134 days of the Biden administration and Democrats in Washington pushing open borders, higher taxes, runaway spending, more government, defunding the police, abandoning the right to life, censoring free speech, canceling our most cherished liberties, I came here to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” Pence said.

“I came here to say that the time is now for every patriotic American who shares our ideals and values to stand up and fight back against the agenda of the radical left,” he added.

The Biden administration has “launched an avalanche of big government liberal policies, the likes of which I never even imagined I’d see in our lifetime.”

He reminisced on the GOP taking back the House in 2010, followed by the Senate in 2014 and presidency in 2016.

“I believe we’re on the verge of another great Republican comeback, and it starts right here in the Live Free or Die state of New Hampshire,” Pence said.

Ahead of Pence’s speech in New Hampshire Thursday evening, Democratic U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan used the Republican’s Granite State appearance as a way to raise some campaign dough.

Hassan’s team blasted out an email to supporters Thursday afternoon, saying that Pence is coming to New Hampshire and that the GOP is “all-in to try and defeat Maggie Hassan, flip this seat, and take back control of the Senate.”

“We’ve set an emergency $10,000 fundraising goal before Mike Pence gets on stage tonight,” the Hassan email reads.

Pence visited New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, at the State House ahead of Thursday evening’s event.

Sununu later introduced Pence at the event, calling the former VP his “friend” and “a good guy.”

In April, Pence launched a new policy and advocacy organization to “promote the pro-freedom policies of the last four years” in a possible sign he’s gearing up for a 2024 presidential bid.