Patterico's Pontifications

6/23/2008

Kozinski Hires Holscher

Filed under: Kozinski — Patterico @ 7:15 pm



Judge Alex Kozinski has hired Mark Holscher of Kirkland & Ellis to represent him in the upcoming judicial misconduct investigation.

I have met Holscher on more than one occasion. He and I are both former law clerks for the Hon. William D. Keller, and he would drop by the chambers from time to time when I was clerking.

Holscher has an impressive reputation. He defended Wen Ho Lee, and as the Wall Street Journal Law Blog explains, that representation concluded quite successfully:

After Lee spent 278 days in solitary confinement, the charges against him were dropped, and he received a formal apology from Federal District Court Judge James Parker, who branded the government’s prosecution of the case an “abuse of power.”

Holscher also represented Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Well, you can’t win ’em all. But then, Cunningham could’ve done much worse.

Judge Kozinski has made a great choice and I have no doubt he will be pleased with the quality of Holscher’s representation.

UPDATE: JRM notes that not all charges against Lee were dropped. He pled guilty to a felony charge — but one which was incredibly minor compared to what he was originally charged with.

And the judge did indeed apologize to him, for confining him in such unpleasant conditions — based on upon representations from the Government that the judge came to question.

8 Responses to “Kozinski Hires Holscher”

  1. I hope that this silliness ends quickly and successfully. Kozinski is one of my favorite appellate judges. I greatly enjoy his opinions especially in the areas I specialize in, and I’ve been honored to hear him speak at events.

    The idea that he’d be impeached over this is just one of many silly claims by Sanai.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  2. I don’t know the man outside the trolling crap from Cyrus, but judging from those who speak well of him, I like the guy a great deal…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  3. When I first heard this story (LA Times version), I thought what kind of idiot of a judge would post porno on the web? After seeing this stuff on Patterico, I realized it was really just sophmoric junk that I get sent to me regularly by various people. Most of it is nonsense but occassionally it is worth a laugh. But bottom line: This judge’s web clips are actually tame compared to the build-up from the LA Times.

    Alta Bob (d2c526)

  4. Kozinski’s a very demanding employer, but his clerks get a lot out of their time with him. His jurisprudence is extremely sensible, and refreshing for the 9th circuit. I was extremely disappointed in this judge for being a deluded pervert, but later learned that there was an apparently deranged man lying obsessively about what he snooped out of the server, and the LA Times had decided to use this snooping to smear a non-democrat.

    This man is going to have to pay many thousands of dollars because he didn’t secure his server and someone took advantage of the hole in his private life. That and the LA Times flat out lied.

    but Kozinski proves again what a smart guy he is. This is not the time to be without an attorney. Always get the best lawyer you can afford. Expensive lawyers are usually a lot cheaper than inexpensive lawyers… in the long run.

    Now watch for Cyrus to claim that a person seeking legal representation is showing signs of guilt… that Kozinski’s use of a good lawyer is somehow scandalous. He’s betrayed his profession so many times I doubt such a lie would bother him even slightly.

    Jem (4cdfb7)

  5. He’s already suggested as much…

    Scott Jacobs (fa5e57)

  6. I think that 58 of the 59 charges against Wen Ho Lee were dropped *in return for a plea deal* where Lee pled guilty to improper handling of secret data. Lee took nuclear secrets home for reasons unclear; he also destroyed some documents.

    (It may be that the plea was to a lesser; news and internet coverage of the plea deal was abysmal, and I’ve probably forgotten a detail or two.)

    I don’t think, “the charges against him were dropped,” is complete. In context, it looks like he walked away as an innocent man.

    I also don’t know that I’d call the judge’s remarks a “formal apology” either, but that’s more nit-picky. The judge was surely very angry at the government, which days before the deal was made had described Lee as a substantial threat to national security.

    Lee was very likely not guilty of what he was originally charged with, and Holscher got an excellent result for his client, but I think the WSJ’s phraseology (and Patterico’s repeat of it) is deceptive at best.

    –JRM

    JRM (355c21)

  7. Given all the work that Patterico has done on this, Judge Kozinski ought to hire him on, too. 🙂

    Very sad to learn that Judge Kozinski needs to hire counsel. He’s a truly decent man who did nothing wrong save to incur Sanai’s wrath.

    bridget (add3eb)

  8. JRM:

    You say:

    I also don’t know that I’d call the judge’s remarks a “formal apology” either, but that’s more nit-picky.

    Here are the remarks, and here is an excerpt from the end:

    “Although, as I indicated, I have no authority to speak on behalf of the Executive Branch, the President, the Vice-president, the Attorney General, or the Secretary of the Department of Energy, as a member of the Third Branch of the United States Government, the Judiciary, the United States Courts, I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner you were held in custody by the Executive Branch.

    Sounds like a formal apology to me.

    Read all the judge’s remarks. He says that Lee pled to a serious offense and deserved to be incarcerated, it’s true. But the statement reeks with anger at the judge’s feeling that he was misled by the government, in particular by the government’s decision to a) oppose Dr. Lee’s release under any conditions, and b) suddenly agree to his release without any conditions, as soon as they were ordered to provide a bunch of discovery to the judge for his review.

    Lee pled to an incredibly minor charge compared to what he was originally charged with, but he did plead, and I will note that in the post. I won’t retract the bit about the apology.

    Patterico (cb443b)


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