The jury did not find E. Jean Carroll proved Donald Trump raped her.

The jury, in returning its verdict shortly after 3 p.m. said Ms. Carroll had not proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Trump had raped her, as she had long claimed.

It found he sexually abused her and defamed her causing her damage.She was awarded $5 million in damages. [More...]

Kim Dotcom lost a big case today in the New Zealand Court of Appeals. The court ruled that "all pathways" of the U.S. for his extradition are open. Here is the court's press release, the summary of the judgment and the 120 page decision is here.

The Court confirmed that the principle of dual criminality is alive and well -- but that didn't save Dotcom, even though New Zealand doesn't have a specific law criminalizing copyright infringement.

Legislative history, English and Canadian authority and principles of extradition law all suggest that the conduct with which a person is charged must be criminal under both United States and New Zealand law before they can be extradited.

In making that finding, the court overuled a Canadian case, Cullinane v United States of America [2003] 2 NZLR 1 (CA) is overruled.

So on what grounds did they authorize the extradition?

The Second Circuit has voided the convictions of two former London traders.

Allen and Conti, who worked for Dutch-headquartered Rabobank [RABO.UL], were convicted in November 2015 of fraud and conspiracy for trying to rig U.S. dollar and Japanese yen Libor.

They were sentenced to two years and one year in prison, respectively, but remained free during the appeal.

The case is United States v. Allen and the opinion is here.[More...]

Kim Kardashian was robbed inside her Paris luxury apartment-hotel residence at 2:30 am. Apparently, the concierge, at gunpoint, let the robbers into Kardashian's unit.

Hours later the French Interior Ministry said five men threatened a concierge with a weapon, handcuffed him and forced him to open the door to Kim's apartment.

I think the most suspect of Mexico's extradition decisions yesterday is that of Antonio Reynoso-Gonzalez. (Here is Mexico's announcement and here is DOJ's announcement.)

Today Mexico insisted yesterday's extraditions were part of a new streamlined policy and unrelated to the recent escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Really? We are supposed to believe it is just happenstance that Antonio Reynoso-Gonzalez, a codefendant of El Chapo in the 1995 San Diego case involving the Otay Mesa tunnel and cocaine smuggled in chili pepper cans was one of the 13 persons extradited? This is the same case for which the U.S. recently sought El Chapo's extradition. [More...]

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the NSA's warrantless mass call tracking program under which Verizon collected phone records of all of its customers is illegal -- it violates Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

At issue was a FISA Court order requiring Verizon to turn over on “an ongoing daily basis” phone call details. The details included whom calls are placed to and from, when those calls are made, and how long they last. The order is here.

The case is ACLU v. Clapper. Today's 100 page decision is here.[More...]

Good decision by the Supreme Court yesterday, holding police can't delay a traffic stop to bring on the dogs without reasonable suspicion.

Actual holding: Absent reasonable suspicion, police extension of a traffic stop to conduct a dog sniff violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures.

The opinion is here. The 8th Circuit opinion is here.

The federal judge presiding over the never ending victims rights lawsuit seeking to overturn a federal non-prosecution agreement against Jeffrey Epstein yesterday ruled Jane Doe #3, aka Virginia Roberts, and Jane Doe #4 cannot join Jane Does 1 and 2 as parties to the lawsuit. He also ruled that if called as witnesses for Jane Does 1 and 2, their evidence will have to be admissible, relevant and non-cumulative.

More importantly, the judge ordered all of Roberts' claims against Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew and others stricken from the record, finding her allegations amounted to "redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter.” In doing so, the Court said it was acting on its own accord, which made a ruling on Dershowitz' motion to intervene unnecessary. [More...]

One year ago today, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was captured in Mazatlan. He's been held at Altiplano prison in Mexico ever since. He has not been extradited. His assets have not been seized or forfeited. There has been no dent in the drugs produced and trafficked by the associated Sinaloa organizations. (Via google translate):

However, one year of "El Chapo" capture, the Sinaloa cartel continues supplying methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana to consumers in Los Angeles, area that has been the one of the main markets for Mexican drug traffickers since the 90's, from the time that "El Chapo" was partnered with the Reynoso brothers.

[More...]

In King v Burwell, the Fourth Circuit rejected a challenge to the Affordable Care Act that argued that the law does not permit subsidies and tax credits on the federal exchange. It did so by invoking what is known as Chevron deference, after the 1984 Supreme Court case of the same name. Here is what the Fourth Circuit opined on that point:

From the last question asked by jurors deliberating the fate of Azamat Tazhayakov, it appears they are close to a verdict.

During opening arguments, Tazhayakhov's lawyer asked them to "give the kid a shot." Did they? Stay tuned.

Here's the court's verdict form. It mispells Dzhokhar. Here's the five page verdict form the Government wanted.

Bump and Update from 5/25/14: As expected, Anonymou Sabu, aka Hector Monsegur, was sentenced to time served today. The judge called his cooperation "extraordinary." See below for the link to his online postings that resulted in his bail being revoked and serving 7 months.

After three years, Anonymou Sabu, aka Hector Monsegur, will finally face a federal judge for sentencing on May 27. The infamous former member of Lulzsec and Anonymous, who agreed to cooperate the night of his arrest on June 7, 2011, agreed to plead guilty to 12 felonies in August, 2011, including nine counts related to computer hacking; one count of credit card fraud; one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Charges pending in four other federal districts were dropped as part of his deal. His plea agreement is here.

The maximum possible sentence for the 12 counts is 122 years. His sentencing guidelines call for a 259 to 317 months sentence (2 years of which are a mandatory minimum.) His guidelines are based on a total loss amount of $20 million to $50 million (the loss caused by his direct participation was $1.5 to $2 million).

As a reward for his cooperation, the Government is seeking no jail time -- a sentence of time served -- with the served part being 7 months he spent in pretrial detention in 2012 after he violated his plea agreement by posting online without authorization and had his bond revoked. [More....]