Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General announced yesterday that no police involved in the raid that led to the shooting death of of Breonna Taylor will be charged with murder. One former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with First Degree Criminal Endangerment (the victims of which were Taylor's neighbors), while the other two officers involved, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officer Myles Cosgrove, were not charged with any criminal offense. (It was Cosgrove who fired the bullet that struck and killed Ms. Taylor).

The charges accuse Hankison of firing blindly into several apartments and recklessly endangering Taylor’s neighbors, but do not charge him with firing at or killing Taylor. Two other officers involved in the March 13 incident, Detective Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, were not charged. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor, according to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, but the grand jury considered his action justifiable.

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The Supreme Court for the state of California has issued a unanimous 101 page opinion in the Scott Peterson case. Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife Lacie Peterson, whose decomposed body and that of the fetus who would have been named Conor had he been born alive, were found in the water a mile from where Peterson said he had been fishing months earlier. Peterson was convicted sentenced to death. Cable news followed every detail of the case, night after night, from the day of Laci's disappearance through the trial.

The death sentence was reversed because the trial court judge excluded jurors who were opposed to the death penalty in general, but never questioned as to whether they could put those feelings aside and judge this case by its facts, or whether, should they find Peterson guilty, they would impose the death sentence no matter what. U.S. Supreme Court precedent is clear that the Court must not. [More...]

The suspect in yesterday's shooting of the son and husband of a federal judge in New Jersey has committed suicide.

He was a lawyer named Roy Den Hollander who billed himself as "anti-feminist".The Daily Beast reports he had a pending case with Salas.

Also, he may have been terminally ill with cancer: [More...]

The Government filed a peculiar letter request with the Court last night. First, it identifies Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney as Christian Everdell, even though no entry of appearance has been filed.

Everdell is a former AUSA in the Southern District of New York whose main beat was international drug traffickers, like El Chapo and his Colombian associates, and some FARC members and some of the more ridiculous cases, like the ones I've written up many times as the "DEA's Most Excellent African Adventures." (And don't just take it from me, see Ginger Johnson's more excellent article, The Narco-Terror Trap, especially on the Oumar Issa case.

Curiously to me, Everdell resigned in November 2016, months after Chapo was caught for the last time in January and about to be extradited. El Chapo arrived here in January, 2017.

I would think that a prosecutor who spent ten years chasing El Chapo, FARC and Colombian traffickers (even getting a medal from a police group for his work on El Chapo) would stay to see him prosecuted. [More...]

I did not expect this today. Ghislaine Maxwell, former paramour and business associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested in New Hampshire where she has been temporarily residing, to face charges stemming from her relationship with Epstein.

Maxwell faces charges that include transporting a minor for the purposes of criminal sexual activity and conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, according to a six-count grand jury indictment that was unsealed earlier in the day.

The Indictment is here. The Government is asking she be held without bond. "In short, Maxwell has three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections, and absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence." (From its detention motion"

But what about her immunity agreement? None of the other recruiters Epstein employed who were granted immunity as part of his plea deal have been charged. For example, according to the NY Times, Sarah Kellen (now Sarah Vickers) was "right under" Ghislaine. If I recall correctly, the immunity provision in Epstein's plea agreement only covered the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida. Also, I wonder if Ghislaine has standing to raise immunity conferred by someone else's plea agreement once he's dead? [More...]

MN Attorney General Keith Ellison today announced that three additional police officers present at the scene of George Floyd's death who witnessed Derek Chauvin's attack on Floyd have been charged with aiding and abetting Chavin. Chauvin's charges were upgraded to second degree murder and second degree manslaughter.

These are state, not federal charges. The officers are Thomas Lane, Alexander Keung and Tou Thau. Lane is already in custody, police are in the process of arresting the other two.

Obama is speaking now. You can watch here. He says the events of the last few weeks have given us a chance for change. He's excited about all the young people coming out. He feels optimistic -- like this country is going to get better. [More...]

Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli will plead guilty today in federal court in Boston via video-conference to conspiracy charges in the college cheating scandal "Varsity Blues" case.

Loughlin will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while Giannulli will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud.

As part of the plea, Loughlin has agreed to serve a two month sentence of incarceration and Giannulli has agreed to a five month sentence.

Loughlin's plea agreement is here and Giannulli's is here. [More...]

Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Roger Stone today to 40 months in prison.

• COUNT 1 - 40 MONTHS
• COUNT 2 to 6 -- 12 MONTHS
• COUNTS 7 -- 18 MONTHS
  all to run concurrently*

Stone will remain free, at least for now while she still has a motion for new trial pending. (His motion for new trial based on the supposed juror misconduct issue was roundly denied by the Judge last week. Here is a copy of the Order.

The Government today seemed to back off its revised sentencing memo a bit by agreeing with the judge that some enhancements applied. Still, the sentence she imposed was inline with the Government's lower revised sentencing memo.

There's a lot of talk that Trump may pardon Stone if Judge Jackson does not grant his subsequent motions for new trial.

Update: Three of the prosecutors on Roger Stone's case have just filed notices to withdraw their appearances for the Government. (Aaron Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis and Adam Jed ). John Crabb, Jr. has entered his appearance for the Government and filed a supplemental sentencing memo asking for a lighter sentence for Stone even in view of the "arguably" correct guideline range of 87 - 108 months. Crabb is the Acting Chief of the Criminal Division and is licensed in New York. In the new brief, Crabb writes:

As noted above, a sentence of 87 to 108 months more typically has been imposed for defendants who have higher criminal history categories or who obstructed justice as part of a violent criminal organization.

Tell that to Rod Blagojevich who got 14 years. Tell that to non-violent drug traffickers who by law must get a ten year mandatory minimum sentence if their offense and uncharged relevant conduct exceeded 5 kilos of cocaine or 1,000 pounds of marijuana. Which is a more serious offense? I'd say lying to interfere with an investigation into foreign interference in a presidential election.

[Original Post below:]

Roger Stone has been convicted of all counts against him.

Prosecutors asked that he be detained pending sentencing, but the Judge continued his bond. Sentencing is set for February.

Mr. Stone, 67, was charged with lying to the House Intelligence Committee, trying to block the testimony of another potential witness and concealing reams of evidence from investigators. Prosecutors claimed he tried to thwart the committee’s work because the truth would have “looked terrible” for both the president and his campaign. He was found guilty of all seven counts he was charged with.

I am simply outraged that Jeffrey Epstein died at a federal detention center in New York.

I will have a lot more to say, but for now, I will just say:

1. Jeffrey Epstein should never have been detained without bond. He was not a flight risk. He had not posed a danger to the community in years. The wealthy do not deserve to be treated more harshly than the poor. The accusers' position on bond should have been taken with a great grain of salt. An indictment is merely an accusation, it is not evidence.

2. Jeffrey Epstein should have been on a 24 hour watch. I would like to see the unit and activity logs for the staff. I have not yet read enough to know if I believe he committed suicide or someone killed him. Either was entirely avoidable.

3. It will disgusting to watch his accusers and their lawyers fight over his carcass to obtain whatever funds he had left that they believe they are due even though almost all of them already collected as a result of the Florida state case. Epstein not only paid them damages, he paid their lawyers' fees.

4. Shame on the Bureau of Prisons. R.I.P. Jeffrey Epstein.

The current official total of people killed in the El Paso shootings is 22. The names and nationalities of the deceased are here.

Donald Trump is going to visit El Paso on Wednesday. Not everyone is pleased:

“I call our governor, I call on our senators to send a message to our president and ask him not to set foot in El Paso,” David Stout, a Democratic commissioner in the border city, told VICE News. “It would just put salt on this wound.” He represents Precinct 2, where Trump spoke in February — and where the massacre took place.

The last time Trump was in El Paso was for a campaign rally and VICE News says he stuck the city for a $470k bill.

Donald Trump first blamed video games and "mentally ill monsters" for the El Paso and Dayton shootings. Via The Intercept, here's a breakdown of similarities between the El Paso shooter's manifesto and Trumpspeak and Fox News comments.

Trump is the most divisive and undeserving person ever to occupy a seat in the White House. Enough is enough. Trump needs to go.