By Steve Neavling

A federal judge lashed out an FBI agent whose failure to disclose evidence in a bank robbery case in New York led to a mistrial. 

FBI Special Agent Paul Scuzzarella said he “forgot” to provide 199 pages of forensic laboratory evidence to federal prosecutors, The Times Union reports.

Saying she was “livid” at the agent’s actions, U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino declared a mistrial on the eve of the final day of testimony in the case of Ulysses Walls, 29, who is accused of armed robberies of banks in Albany and North Greenbush in 2019. 

A retrial has been scheduled for Feb. 21. 

“I want you to know, Agent Scuzzarella, that you are responsible for the position the court finds itself in,” D’Agostino told the agent.  “Negligence, ineptitude, carelessness, failure to do what you needed to do is going to result in another trial where these bank tellers are going to have to come in and relive what happened to them at two separate banks. Thousands of dollars of resources have already been spent for this trial to be conducted — and it’s on you. And I don’t know if you fully understand precisely the position you have put this court in.”

The judge added: “You should be embarrassed by your conduct.”

While the judge questioned the agent under oath on Dec. 15, Scuzzarella said he thought he had disclosed all of the evidence but was mistaken.  

“It’s on me that I apparently did not review everything and realized that this particular stuff was not included. And then I think just, over time, I forgot it was even done,” he stated. 

By Steve Neavling

A 42-year-man who tricked people into believing he was a DEA agent was sentenced in federal court to time served. 

Robert Edward Golden spent less than a month in custody after he was arrested in February. 

“I would like to apologize for my actions, also for deceiving those who I love and care about,” Golden told U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman, The Oregonian reports. “I admit that I have a problem.”

Golden was arrested after police found him posing as a DEA agent and wearing a vest with “DEA Police” patches, handcuffs, badges, a BB gun that resembled an AR-15-style rifle, body-armor-plate carrier and DEA credentials.

For a year, Golden had convinced a woman she was a DEA agent in training. 

A curious Portland police officer questioned Golden and the woman when he spotted a tactical vest bearing a DEA patch in the open trunk of his car. 

When approached, Golden is accused of saying that he and his “trainee” were “feds.” 

The woman was not charged and said that she had been given a DEA badge and photo ID by Golden.

The pair went practice shooting and conducted night surveillance “ride-alongs.”

Golden had faced up to three years in prison. 

A federal judge charged three members of the U.S. Marshals Service with contempt of court and obstructing justice over a dispute about COVID-19 vaccinations in South Dakota. 

U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann lashed out at the supervisory law enforcement officers on Monday for allegedly permitting a deputy marshal to escort prisoners from a courtroom after refusing to disclose whether she had been vaccinated, The Washington Post reports.

The agency’s Chief of Staff John Kilgallon, South Dakota Marshal Daniel C. Mosteller, and Deputy South Dakota Marshal Stephen Houghtaling were charged in the dispute. 

“This was such an outrageous thing to do,” the judge said. “Nothing like this that we could find has ever been done in this country. If it is the marshals’ position that they can override court orders, they are badly mistaken.”

Kornmann is asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute the case. 

In a letter to federal officials in March, Kornmann said he expects to be informed of the vaccination status of people who work in the courthouse. 

“We are not talking about politics or conspiracy theories. We are talking about science and protecting all of us who serve the public here as well as the jurors, lawyers and parties who come to this building,” Kornmann wrote. “If you are refusing to take the vaccines, I want to know that so I can decide what further action is required on my part.”

By Steve Neavling

Christina Korbe, who fatally shot an FBI agent during a drug raid in Pennsylvania, won’t be freed from prison early, a federal judge has ruled. 

Korbe was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing FBI Agent Sam Hicks when her home was raided for drugs at her Indiana Township home in 2008. Hick was 33. 

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan rejected her bid for early release, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

“Ms. Korbe has spent a significant period of time in prison, which has placed a burden on her family,” the judge wrote. “While the Court empathizes with Ms. Korbe and her family, empathy doesn’t always translate into compassionate release. The circumstances presented here simply do not rise to the standard that Congress has authorized for early release.”

Korbe’s attorney requested the early release because she claimed she had the coronavirus in the spring, but prosecutors disputed that. Whatever the case, the judge said Korbe is not at a high risk because she lacks underlying health conditions. 

Korbe was convicted in 2011 of voluntary manslaughter and using a fund during a crime of violence. She was spared a life sentence for a murder a federal agent.

Korbe is eligible for release in 2022.

By Steve Neavling

A federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn raised more questions Tuesday about the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case. 

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said his role “is not intended to serve merely as a rubber stamp” for prosecutors who want to dismiss a case, NBC News reports.

By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com

Accusing the judge of “abject bias” against Flynn, who served briefly under President Trump, Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell said she plans to ask Sullivan to recuse himself from the case. 

Powell also revealed to the court that she recently met in person with Trump and asked him not to pardon Flynn. 

“I provided the White House an update on the status of the litigation,” she said. “And I asked that the president not issue a pardon.”

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Columbia Circuit ruled that Sullivan can does not have to promptly dismiss the case just because the Justice Department sought to drop it.

In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. 

Now the Justice Department and Flynn want the case to be dismissed, drawing criticism from Democrats and legal experts who have questioned Attorney General William Barr’s motives for intervening in a case tied to Trump.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A judge may decide today whether to accept the Justice Department’s unusual move to dismiss the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a former President Trump appointee who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.

The case returns to U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Columbia Circuit ruled in late August that he can does not have to promptly dismiss the case just because the Justice Department sought to drop it.

Sullivan will hear final arguments in the case.

The Justice Department and Flynn want the case to be dismissed, while former federal judge John Gleeson is arguing that Sullivan can move forward and sentence Flynn.

Democrats and legal experts have questioned Attorney General William Barr’s motives for intervening in a case tied to Trump.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty Wednesday to altering an email used to seek the continued surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Kevin Clinesmith, 38, admitted he doctored the email, which was submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA).

The guilty plea stems from the investigation into how the Obama administration investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The email suggested that Page was not a source for the CIA, even though he had a relationship with the agency.

Clinesmith admitted he was guilty but said he believed at the time that his statement about Page was true.

“At the time, I believed that the information I was providing in the email was accurate,” Clinesmith told Judge James E. Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, The New York Times reports. “But I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not originally there, and I inserted that information.”

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10. He faces up to six months in jail based on sentencing guidelines.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Attorney General William Barr may have decided to drop the criminal case against Michael Flynn based on secret information, a government lawyer said Tuesday.

The possible existence of nonpublic information was revealed by Jeffrey Wall, the acting U.S. solicitor general, during an appeals court hearing over the dismissal of Flynn’s case in federal court.

“The attorney general sees this in the context of nonpublic information from other investigations,” Wall told the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“It may be possible that the attorney general had before him information that he was not able to share with the court and so what we put in front of the court were the reasons that we could, but it may not be the whole picture available to the executive branch,” Wall said.

“The attorney general made that decision or that judgment on the basis of lots of information,” Wall added. “Some of it is public and fleshed out in the motion. Some of it is not.”

The appellate court is trying to determine whether a lower-court judge was obligated to accede to the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the case.