US Capitol rioter who attacked police with fire extinguisher gets 5 years in longest sentence yet handed down
A Florida man who was one of the first people to plead guilty to crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting law enforcement officers — the longest such term yet.
Robert Palmer, described by his lawyer as a father of four and a “successful businessman,” was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., after admitting to attacking police with a fire extinguisher, a wood plank and a5-foot pole that he launched like a spear.
The U.S. Justice Department requested the stiff term despite Palmer’s early cooperation with investigators, noting that he had falsely claimed on social media that his actions were “purely defensive.”
“I don’t expect my client to appeal,” Palmer’s lawyer, Bjorn Brunvand, said in an email. “While we had hoped for a more lenient sentence, we understand that this was a serious and difficult case.”
Palmer’s attempt to get less time largely hinged on blaming Donald Trump, accusing the former president and his Republican allies of luring him and hundreds of others to the Capitol with false claims that the election had been stolen by corrupt Democrats.
“Those voices, including the voice of the then-president himself, had convinced persons such as Mr. Palmer that the election was fraudulent and that they must take action to stop the transition of the presidency,” Brunvand in a sentencing memorandum.
The U.S. balked at his claim to have seen the light, telling the court in a sentencing memorandum that there was “good reason to be skeptical” of Palmer’s “eleventh-hour” conversion.
—Bloomberg News
Ghislaine Maxwell, declaring prosecutors didn’t prove their case, will not take the stand
NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell will not take the stand to testify in her defense and her legal team will rest its case Friday,one day after her defense began.
“Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there’s no reason to testify,” Maxwell said,addressing U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who is presiding over the case.
Earlier, her legal team appeared to be struggling to mount her defense and was admonished by Nathan for delay, one day after the judge had rejected several of her lawyers' requests related to witnesses they intended to call.
Maxwell’s lawyers did call Eva Dubin, the physician wife of hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin and Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, as a witness. Maxwell faces six counts related to the sex trafficking of minors and is accused of recruiting and grooming several girls for Epstein’s abuse between 1994 and 2004. And they called a former employee of Epstein’s, Michelle Healy.
But the defense indicated it was having problems with other witnesses it intended to call.
Maxwell’s trial, which began Nov. 29, was originally scheduled to take as much as six weeks, but the prosecution rested itscase early, last Friday, Dec. 10. The trial was then put on hold for the first three days of this week due to a scheduling conflict. Nathan argued that even though the prosecution rested its case early, the defense had plenty of warning about the change in schedule.
—Miami Herald
Attorneys squabble over settlement money from Stoneman Douglas shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lawyers for the families of the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting want a federal judge to step in and settle who is entitled to the biggest payout from a recent $127.5 million settlement with the FBI.
But the dispute is not about the victims. It’s all about the attorneys and their legal fees.
A recent motion in the case asks Federal Judge William P. Dimitrouleas to remove the Miami firm of Podhurst Orseck as lead counsel for plaintiffs in the case, in which a settlement agreement was announced last month.
The reason, according to the motion, has to do with Podhurst Orseck’s “recent surprise motion for a 10% fee to be taxed against the $127.5 settlement puts them in conflict with all but one other plaintiffs’ counsel.”
The request would have no direct effect on how much each victim’s family would take home; only on how the attorneys’ fees are divvied up. Lawyers for 10 law firms representing more than 35 clients are part of the FBI lawsuit. Each family made its own agreement on attorneys’ fees.
“No prior agreement had been reached on such a fee,” the other attorneys wrote. “No order had been entered entitling Podhurst to any such fee.”
The attorneys on the case for Podhurst were not immediately available to comment.
Victims’ families praised the FBI last month for accepting responsibility for its failure to stop the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17, physically injured 17 more and traumatized scores of others.
—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Death toll could rise, as 24 confirmed dead in Japan high-rise blaze
TOKYO — More than two dozen people were feared dead after a fire broke out in a high-rise building in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, with local media citing police sources as saying that police suspect the blaze was started deliberately.
So far, 24 people are confirmed dead, according to NHK broadcaster, citing police.
Earlier, 27 of 28 people injured in the fire were diagnosed with "cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest," Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. The phrase is commonly used in Japan before deaths are officially confirmed.
The fire broke out within a medical clinic, reportedly on the fourth floor of a building near the Osaka train station.
NHK and news agency Kyodo cited police sources as saying that a man believed to be in his 60s was seen holding a paper bag with liquid leaking from it, and that the fire started where some of the liquid had dripped.
—dpa
