CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN MANAFORT TRIAL: HOW LONG IS TOO LONG?

[Photo from wikipedia]

Today, closing arguments began in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign coordinator Paul Manafort.  According to various news reports, both sides asked the Judge for up to two hours for closing arguments.  Judge T.S. Ellis reportedly voiced skepticism about the lawyers being able to keep the jury's attention for that long!

What do you think? Should closing arguments be kept under an hour? Are jurors less attentive than they were one hundred years ago, when closing arguments often lasted for hours?

As a former federal prosecutor in Augusta, Georgia, I handled a few major complex fraud and public corruption cases in which my closing argument reached 90 minutes in length. However, I always tried to remember that if you talk too long, you will lose your jury!

SHOULD THE FISA MEMO BE RELEASED?

[Photo from wikipedia]

Should the controversial FISA memo be released to the public? According to news reports, the four page memo outlines FBI and DOJ abuses of their surveillance powers, in order to spy on the President's campaign and transition teams.  In a nutshell, the allegations are that agents sympathetic to the Clinton campaign utilized the largely unsubstantiated Russian "dirty" dossier, paid for by Clinton and the DNC, to apply for FISA warrants to spy on an opposition candidate (and new president) during an election year. If that happened, then this would clearly be one of the largest political scandals in American history.

The House Intelligence Committee has already voted for its release.  But the FBI and DOJ have reportedly objected to its release.  FBI Director Christopher Wray has even complained that the memo is inaccurate. However, House Speaker Paul Ryan has gone on record stating that the memo should be released in order to help "cleanse" the FBI and DOJ.

It is now up to the President.  He is reportedly having the memo reviewed, but last evening, after his State of the Union speech, he promised its prompt release.

What is your opinion? Should it be released? As a former federal prosecutor, I say let the cleansing begin!

SHOULD PRESIDENT TRUMP MEET WITH MUELLER?

Should President Trump meet with Mr. Mueller's agents?  He's certainly said he's not only willing to do so, but that he would gladly do it "under oath!" What do you think? If you were his criminal defense attorney, would you allow your client to meet with and be interrogated by law enforcement agents?

From my perspective, as a former federal prosecutor and, currently, as a criminal defense lawyer, there is no way I would want my client to meet with government agents in his circumstances!

For example, I would be worried that the feds would try to trip him up, in order to bring a false statements charge against him, just like they did with Michael Flynn.

Plus, serious questions have been raised recently about bias in Special Counsel Mueller's team against the President.

In addition, here, presumably, the defense team doesn't know all the potential evidence that Mueller's team may have against their client.

So, in my opinion, I would hope the President would take my advice, as his lawyer, and not submit to an interrogation. Mr. Cobb and other folks on the President's team should, instead, be insisting that Mueller should simply submit any questions to them and then they may provide written responses.

What do you think?