Monday, June 22, 2015

USA Preet Bharara and AUSA Niketh Velamoor should be disbarred. Judge Frank Mass should be removed from office and disbarred.

I have sent a letter to the Federal Bar for Southern New York as well as the New York Bar condemning their actions and asking for an investigation and potential disbarment. I don't expect anything to come of it but this simply cannot stand. I know several of you are also attorneys and I urge you to do the same. This is a blatant, unwarranted, unnecessary, unconstitutional action taken by individuals sworn to uphold the constitution. Also the gag order appears to have been sent in violation of New York's Rule of Professional Conduct 4.2.
Quote:
In representing a client, a lawyer shall not communicate or cause another to communicate about the subject of the representation with a party the lawyer knows to be represented by another lawyer in the matter, unless the lawyer has the prior consent of the other lawyer or is authorized to do so by law.

This is unconscionable action. If we don't take a stand on this it will get swept under the rug and ignored. I know many of you are not libertarians and don't agree with Reason.com's positions, but that's not the point. If this happened to Mother Jones I'd be doing the same thing.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Reason.com subject to government persecution

http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/19/government-stifles-speech

For the past two weeks, Reason, a magazine dedicated to "Free Minds and Free Markets," has been barred by an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from speaking publicly about a grand jury subpoena that court sent to Reason.com.

The subpoena demanded the records of six people who left hyperbolic comments at the website about the federal judge who oversaw the controversial conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the government issued a gag order prohibiting Reason not only from discussing the matter but even acknowledging the existence of the subpoena or the gag order itself. As a wide variety of media outlets have noted, such actions on the part of the government are not only fundamentally misguided and misdirected, they have a tangible chilling effect on free expression by commenters and publications alike.

US Attorney Preet Bharara and Assistant US Attorney Niketh Velamoor should be disbarred. Judge Frank Mass should be removed from office and disbarred. This is such an egregious overreach and violation of civil rights. There is no excuse for this kind of heavy handed action. They are explicitly violating the 1st Amendment which they swore to uphold.