Nancy Gertner

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling is charging a trial court judge and a former court officer with obstruction of justice. The charges stem from an incident that occurred last April, when the pair allegedly helped a man slip out the back door of a Newton courthouse to avoid detention by federal immigration authorities. Middlesex County Judge Shelley M. Richmond and now-retired court officer Wesley MacGregor are facing three obstruction charges, including conspiracy, aiding and abetting and obstruction of a federal proceeding. ... Guests: Nancy Gertner, retired federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, WBUR legal analyst.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team found no evidence of a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign to rig the 2016 presidential election. But legal experts said Thursday that the highly anticipated Mueller report doesn’t shut the door on the question of whether President Trump obstructed the special counsel’s investigation into Russian meddling. ... Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge who teaches at Harvard Law School, noted in an e-mail that the federal obstruction law covers a wide array of actions. “The statute talks not only about actual obstruction but also endeavor to obstruct,” Gertner wrote in an e-mail. “The report suggests that Trump ‘endeavored’ to obstruct but those around him would not comply. And ‘endeavor’ has to come with a corrupt intent. The AG seems to think that if Trump was not conspiring with the Russians, there was no corrupt intent. But the purpose of his attempted obstruction didn’t have to be to stop a Russian conspiracy investigation.”

The redacted version of the Mueller Report is out, and we've spent all day reading through the 448 pages. We discuss the report and what we've absorbed of it thus far, and try to make sense of what it all means.Guests: Nancy Gertner, former Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst. She tweets @ngertner; Donald Stern, former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts from 1993 to 2001, and managing director of corporate monitoring and consulting services at Affiliated Monitors.; David Gergen, adviser to four U.S. Presidents — Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton — and co-director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He tweets @David_Gergen. and Joe Battenfeld, Political columnist at the Boston Herald and host of "Battenfeld" on Boston Herald Radio. He tweets @joebattenfeld.

The Mueller will be released Thursday morning. We lay out what's at stake politically and legally. McKay Coppins, staff writer for The Atlantic. Author of "The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House." (@mckaycoppins) Nancy Gertner, retired Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer on law at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst. (@ngertner) Mark Updegrove, author, presidential historian for ABC News. President and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. Director of the LBJ Presidential Library from 2009 to 2017.

An uphill fight awaits defense lawyers who are representing former congressman Robin Hayes and campaign donor Greg Lindberg in a pending federal corruption case, legal experts say. Still, those lawyers are likely to use court motions to challenge the government’s central assertion — that Hayes, Lindberg and two of Lindberg’s associates took part in a scheme to bribe North Carolina insurance commissioner Mike Causey. ... Several legal experts agreed that at least some of the defendants will likely plead guilty instead of going to trial. That’s what happens in 97 percent of federal criminal cases, said Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge. “In a situation where the government has tapes, the pressure to plead guilty is substantial,” Gertner said.

An op-ed by Nancy Gertner: Just when it seemed everyone was open to new ideas about criminal justice, after last year’s reform bill, Thomas Turco, the state secretary of public safety and security, rehashed old tropes, and worse, old politics in blasting Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s prosecution plans. Turco’s broadside was released to the press without notice to the new DA; Rollins’s reply was swift, attacking Governor Charlie Baker for authorizing it. The reported rapprochement between the two officials, while admirable, shouldn’t obscure some of the larger issues the dust-up reveals. Turco criticized Rollins’s “decline to prosecute” list, ignoring crucial details in her 65-page plan. A Suffolk prosecutor was obliged to decline or divert certain offenses unless he or she got permission from a more experienced supervisor. (Turco ignored the “unless” clause.) The list consists of nonviolent crimes involving drugs, property, and offenses like driving with a suspended license, and it makes sense.

After nearly two years of investigation, interviews and indictments, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's job is officially done. While his report has not been released to the public, Attorney General William Barr has released a summary, stating that Mueller did not find evidence that members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia in the foreign government’s election interference activities. ... To decipher the impact—for the president, and for the American people—Jim Braude was joined by retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, now a professor at Harvard Law School, and commentator Jennifer Braceras of the conservative think tank Independent Women’s Forum.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is over. Attorney General William Barr gave his summary of the report's findings Sunday—and said the special counsel did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it attempted to conspire or coordinate with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. Republicans nationally and locally are celebrating the news. But Democrats, including those in Massachusetts' congressional delegation, say the four-page summary should not be the final chapter of this story. Guests: Nancy Gertner, former Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst. She tweets @ngertner.

An op-ed by Alex Whiting, Ryan Goodman and Nancy Gertner: In public remarks last month, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein hinted about the fate of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report on the results of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. While not speaking about any particular case, Rosenstein reiterated the department’s policy of not publicly commenting on the evidence in cases where charges are not brought. This might affect the report’s release, as Mueller is expected to abide by the Justice Department’s policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Rosenstein described his message he has given to prosecutors and agents during his tenure: “If we aren’t prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens.” Attorney General William P. Barr’s message at his confirmation hearing in January was much the same: “If you’re not going to indict someone, you don’t stand up there and unload negative information about the person.” The policy reflects a basic norm within the Justice Department. Then-FBI director James B. Comey was widely condemned, including by the department’s inspector general, for violating it during the 2016 presidential campaign when he publicly criticized Hillary Clinton’s conduct regarding the use of a private email server while secretary of state, even as Comey announced that the FBI had not found sufficient evidence to recommend criminal charges. Yet a closer look at the department’s policy suggests that Rosenstein’s approach might not apply to the Mueller report.

Time is running out for Michael Cohen, who has less than two months until he reports to prison. ...Cohen’s credibility is under siege after he admitted that he lied to lawmakers. Prosecutors have already pored through Cohen’s seized electronics and documents for evidence. If Cohen does have a magic bullet, it would have to be unique information providing prosecutors an investigative road map against Trump, said former federal judge Nancy Gertner. “If he testified about information on the inner workings of the Trump business that they wouldn’t otherwise have, that would be very helpful to investigators” and Cohen, said Gertner, who teaches at Harvard Law School.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Thursday to reinstate a lawsuit against the gun manufacturer Remington, filed by families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. If Remington loses the suit, it would be a landmark ruling that would deal a huge blow to the gun industry. Guest: Nancy Gertner, former Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst.

It was announced last week that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was sentenced to less than four years behind bars, a punishment decried by many in Washington and in legal circles as too lenient ... To discuss the political and legal significance of the ruling, Jim Braude was joined by retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, now a lecturer at Harvard Law School, and Bruce Singal, a defense attorney who worked alongside Robert Mueller in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston.

An op-ed by Nancy Gertner: I was on the federal bench for 17 years before I retired in 2011 to teach, write and lecture about sentencing. The sentencing of Paul Manafort surprised me. I know how difficult the job of judging is; I am reluctant to second guess another judge’s decision as the public and pundits do. The judge sees the defendant, hears the evidence, evaluates the confidential presentence report. We do not. And since I am a critic of sentencing in U.S. courts for being overly punitive, for disproportionately impacting communities of color, I am loath to challenge any judge for being lenient. Still, I was taken aback Thursday by Manafort’s sentence to 47 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III for cheating on his taxes and for bank fraud.

Several federal judges on Thursday gave advice to white collar attorneys on best practices when it comes to sentencing, urging lawyers to be more specific in their submissions and to take great care when it comes to their clients' final pitches to the bench. ... Judges said attorneys should take extra care at this point with clients who have lost at trial and are maintaining their innocence. Retired U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner of the District of Massachusetts, who now teaches at Harvard Law School, said the client in this situation has to “do the dance.” “The dance is you have to basically say, ‘I’m sorry that it led to this,’ there are ways you can circle around I did it,” Judge Gertner said.

Harvard Law School Professors Jeannie Suk Gersen ’02 and Janet Halley, and Senior Lecturer on Law Nancy Gertner have issued a Comment on the Department of Education’s Proposed Rule on Title IX enforcement.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and presidents of three colleges in the city are lining up against a Trump administration proposal to offer more protections to students accused of sexual assault. ... "The single-investigator model ... is a star chamber," said former federal Judge Nancy Gertner, who's now a senior lecturer at Harvard Law School. "[It] is an enormously unfair model. It doesn't offer any protections to either side. It's not the way you get at the truth."

News broke today that President Trump’s former "fixer" and lawyer, Michael Cohen, will be testifying in front of Congress — following his guilty plea and December sentencing to three years in prison for a range of crimes committed while working for Trump.... To discuss the latest on the Mueller investigation and what it all means, Jim Braude was joined by retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, who is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Law; and former U.S. attorney Don Stern, who worked alongside Robert Mueller both during his stint with the Department of Justice and in private practice at Hale and Dorr.

The Department of Justice's recent effort to toss lawsuits it says it wasted hundreds of hours investigating is emblematic of a strategy under President Donald Trump to rein in trial lawyers who are using a federal whistleblower law to seek millions of dollars. ...Prominent qui tam lawyers are now questioning the nomination of William Barr as attorney general, citing comments he made nearly 30 years ago questioning the constitutionality of private relators under the FCA. Some of the lawyers who signed a recent letter to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley criticizing Barr, including Harvard Law School Professor Nancy Gertner, participated in litigation against Celgene that the government declined to join but nevertheless generated $280 million in settlements and more than $30 million in legal fees.

Paul Manafort shared Trump campaign polling data with an associate tied to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign, prosecutors alleged, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday. ...  The plea agreement gives the prosecutors the power to almost unilaterally decide whether Mr. Manafort has violated it. Unless Mr. Manafort can show they acted in bad faith — a high bar — their judgment stands. The prosecutors could also decide to file new charges against Mr. Manafort for lying to them, but do not plan to do so, according to the defense lawyers’ filing, unsealed Tuesday. “They have him so deeply in the soup here that what both sides are almost saying is that this doesn’t matter,” said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor.

We look back at the year in law and politics. In law, we look at President Trump's travel ban and family separations at the border before the courts. In local politics, 2018 found Massachusetts at the center of the divide in both parties. We have a Republican Centrist Governor in a GOP with little room for centrists and an all Democratic delegation in Congress poised to take new leadership while also divided over the future of their party. Guests: Nancy Gertner, former Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst.