Ty Cobb: Mueller investigation is not a ‘witch hunt’

Ex-White House lawyer Ty Cobb broke with his former boss Monday, saying he doesn't believe special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is a “witch hunt.” “I don’t think it’s a witch hunt,” Cobb told CNN’s Gloria Borger during CNN’s "Citizen Conference." Cobb also characterized Mueller as “an American hero in my view” and said that he has respected Mueller for decades. “He was a very serious prosecutor,” Cobb said. “He and I first met in the mid-'80s when we were prosecuting different places, and I have respected him throughout.”

Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. He is also examining potential obstruction of justice after President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey. Trump routinely rails against the probe, calling it a "witch hunt." Cobb left his post at the White House earlier this year and was replaced by Emmet Flood, who previously served in the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ty-cobb-mueller-investigation-is-not-a-witch-hunt

Trump administration moves to let employers contribute to cheaper Obamacare alternatives

The Trump administration moved Monday to make cheap Obamacare alternatives eligible for employer-based subsidies, the latest in its efforts to increase access to insurance plans that do not comply with Obamacare’s regulations. Administration officials announced their intention to propose a regulation Tuesday that would let large employers make tax-free contributions to employees that purchase cheaper short-term health plans, which offer fewer benefits than plans sold on Obamacare's exchanges. The goal behind the employer regulation is "empowering workers and employers to make their own decisions with more options,” a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.

The Trump proposal would revise rules introduced by the Obama administration in 2013 that governed health reimbursement arrangements, which allow employers to cover medical costs for employees outside of an employer-sponsored health plan. Employer-provided health insurance enjoys a major tax advantage in that it is excluded from taxable income. The 2013 rule said that an employer could make a tax-free contribution to the premiums of an employee, but only for a qualified Obamacare plan that covers pre-existing conditions and requires coverage of essential health benefits. An employer who wanted to contribute to a plan that was not a qualified Obamacare plan, like a short-term plan, would not get the tax benefits.

The 21st Century Cures Act of 2016 revoked the rule for small businesses that had 50 or fewer employees, but it remained for large businesses. Now the Trump administration wants to eliminate the rule for all employers just as it is promoting the expansion of short-term plans.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration finalized regulations to expand the duration of short-term health plans from 90 days to nearly 12 months, allowing them to present a viable alternative to Obamacare plans for more people. It also expanded access to association health plans, another Obamacare alternative through which individuals and small groups band together to buy insurance. The administration also released on Monday new guidance that would let states rewrite major Obamacare rules through a waiver. The guidance could allow states to get waivers to give customers of short-term and association plans subsidies to pay down their cost, which could lower the cost of the plans even further. But critics warn that the proliferation of short-term and association health plans raise the risk of destabilizing Obamacare’s exchanges, because people would flock to the cheaper plans. This would mean only sicker people would remain in the law’s exchanges and would drive up the cost of insurance, thus imperiling coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. “The administration plainly admitted its intention is to use taxpayer dollars to fund junk insurance plans that don’t cover pre-existing conditions,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a statement Monday on the waiver changes.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/trump-administration-moves-to-let-employers-contribute-to-cheaper-obamacare-alternatives

Hillary Clinton avoids punishment in Arkansas over secret emails

Arkansas’s bar has declined to sanction former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her handling of her secret emails, rejecting a request that she face a misconduct investigation. The state Supreme Court’s office of professional conduct didn’t offer any explanation for its decision in an Oct. 17 letter to Ty Clevenger, the lawyer who’d asked for action. “As in most other states, Arkansas’s bar prosecutors will go to perverse lengths to protect a politically-influential attorney. Lawyers with the right political connections can get away with just about anything, and it doesn’t seem to matter if they’re Republicans or Democrats,” Mr. Clevenger said. Mr. Clevenger had told Arkansas there was clear evidence Mrs. Clinton committer perjury in her explanation of her handling of her emails, and that she destroyed evidence by having her team delete tens of thousands of messages before the government had a chance to review them. A bar official refused the complaint last year and Mr. Clevenger asked the professional conduct committee to step in. They declined. “After review, it was the decision of the sub-panel to affirm the executive director’s decision and dismiss your grievance filed in connection with the alleged conduct of the respondent attorney,” wrote Joseph Hickey, chairman of the committee.

Mrs. Clinton is currently suspended from the Arkansas bar for having not completed required ongoing certification training. But she could reactivate her license by taking the training, Mr. Clevenger said when he first filed his grievance in 2016. Now, Mr. Clevenger says it doesn’t appear the committee did any investigation of Mrs. Clinton, despite taking two years to decide on his grievance. “The reason the Arkansas committee did not offer an explanation is because they can’t admit that they dismissed the case for political reasons,” he said. Mr. Clevenger said he is considering asking the state Supreme Court to step in and force a review of Mrs. Clinton’s bar status. He has fought and lost similar grievances in other jurisdictions against Mrs. Clinton and her legal team that was directly responsible for the review and deletion of her emails, which she kept on a server at her home in New York, in a move the FBI said risked exposing national security secrets.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/22/hillary-clinton-ducks-punishment-ark-secret-emails/

Lawyers for accused Russian agent Maria Butina say feds are withholding evidence

Attorneys for accused Russian agent Maria Butina, said in a court filing Monday federal prosecutors are withholding evidence that could undermine the case against their client. Ms. Butina was indicted in July on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent. Prosecutors have alleged that she has ties to Russian intelligence agencies and came to the United States to influence politics. Her attorneys said she is a student who had an interest in politics and the evidence they claim the government has withheld will prove that. The evidence “would undermine the allegations in the indictment, attack the credibility of the government’s case, impeach government witnesses and demonstrate that Maria Butina was, in fact, nothing more than a student with lofty aspirations who was acting on her own and not as a foreign agent,” her attorneys wrote in a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson. Ms. Butina’s attorneys have asked Mr. Kenerson to provide them with an indexed and detailed list of evidence produced in discovery, according to the letter filed in a Washington, D.C. federal court. Defense attorneys Robert Driscoll and Alfred Carry say the government is violating the Brady rule, which requires prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/22/maria-butina-lawyers-accuse-government-withholding/

Michael Avenatti must pay ex-attorney millions in back pay, judge rules

Stormy Daniels lawyer said Jason Frank owes him and the firm $12 million 'for his fraud'

Porn actress Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti must pay $4.85 million to an attorney who worked at his former law firm, a California judge ruled Monday in an order that holds the potential presidential candidate personally liable in a lawsuit over back pay. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dennis Landin ruled that Avenatti personally guaranteed a settlement with attorney Jason Frank, who said Eagan Avenatti misstated its profits and that he was owed millions of dollars.

Avenatti, who is best known for representing Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump following an alleged 2006 affair, did not appear at Monday’s hearing and never filed arguments in the case. He told The Associated Press that Frank owes him and the firm $12 million “for his fraud.” He did not provide details and declined to comment further. It’s unclear whether Avenatti has filed any litigation in the matter against Frank, whose attorney said Frank doesn’t owe Avenatti a dime and that saying so is defamatory.

Avenatti, who is toying with a possible 2020 presidential run, can appeal the ruling but since he never filed arguments about why he shouldn’t have to pay the $4.85 million, any such effort would be “dead in the water,” said Frank’s attorney, Eric George. “He’s managed to delay this for ages,” George said. “At the end of the day, this is money that’s owed. No matter how you try to spin it, it comes back to the fact that he took money, it wasn’t his and now there’s a judgment saying it’s owed to my client.” Frank had worked at Avenatti’s former firm under an independent contractor agreement and was supposed to collect 25 percent of its annual profits, along with 20 percent of fees his clients paid, court documents say. “It’ll be important to keep an eye on him and sources of money that are coming in, see what his assets are, and take it from there,” George said.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/22/michael-avenatti-pay-jason-frank-4-million-back-pa/